After nearly two weeks of challenging the legal process, Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will finally be extradited from Pennsylvania — where Mangione was arrested and remained behind bars — to New York City, where Thompson's Dec 4 murders occurred.
At a court hearing Thursday, Mangione agreed to waive extradition in order to face the New York indictment against him, which includes first- and second-degree murder charges as well as one count of “act of terrorism.”
Following the hearing, Mangione is expected to be flown immediately from Pennsylvania to a New York-area airport, CNN reports.
Since the initial court hearings in Pennsylvania, Mangione and his lawyer Thomas Dickey have fought the extradition attempts, with Dickey previously claiming that the New York City arrest warrant had “no evidence” against Mangione. “We're challenging the extradition at this point, so we can see some evidence and get a little more detailed information about the charges against Luigi,” Dickey said in a Dec. 11 interview.
Mangione remained behind bars and without bail in Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution while investigators built a New York grand jury case against the suspect, with New York governor Kathy Hochul speaking multiple times with her Pennsylvania counterpart Josh Shapiro about expediting the extradition process by signing a governor's warrant, CBS News reported.
“I want to get [Mangione] back here in the State of New York and run him through our criminal justice system,” Hochul said in a Dec. 12 interview. “Because that horrific attack occurred on our streets, and the people of our city deserve to have that sense of calm that this perpetrator has been caught and he will never see the light of day again, if there is justice. You cannot murder an individual on the streets of New York. Not now, not ever.”
While Mangione originally faced one count of second-degree murder in Thompson's death, the charge was ultimately upgraded to premeditated first-degree murder.
Mangione has also been charged in New York with three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument. Police believe the gun Mangione allegedly used to shoot Thompson multiple times was a “ghost gun” capable of firing a 9 mm round, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press conference on Monday. This refers to firearms typically assembled by the owner at home, rendering them untraceable compared to a traditionally manufactured gun. Kenny added that the gun in this case may have been made on a 3D printer.
After allegedly fleeing New York, Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where officers responded to a report of a “suspicious male” who looked like the person being sought in the New York shooting. Pennsylvania authorities charged him with carrying firearms without a license, possessing instruments of a crime, falsely identifying himself to law enforcement, tampering with records or identification, and forgery.
