Luigi Mangione, suspected of having assassinated an American health insurance boss in revenge against the sector, was transferred Thursday to New York where he appeared for the first time before the federal courts.
The transfer was carefully staged by US authorities and news channels showed the 26-year-old, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, being slowly escorted by police officers in helmets and with machine guns slung over their shoulders after he landed in New York aboard a helicopter.
The city's mayor, Eric Adams, who heads the New York police, accompanied the procession.
The engineering graduate, a former bright student from a wealthy Baltimore family, was then brought before federal judge Katharine Parker for the first time, who read him the charges, including that he used a firearm to kill Brian Thompson, the CEO of the country's largest private health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, in early December in the middle of New York's financial district.
The charges carry the death penalty or life in prison, the US Justice Department said in a statement.
– “Terrorism” –
In the morning, Luigi Mangione appeared before a Pennsylvania state court near his place of arrest on December 9. There was no dispute about his transfer to New York and he arrived calmly, unlike the day after his arrest when he appeared agitated and vehement, shouting the words: "It is an insult to the intelligence of the American people."
The federal charges are now in addition to those decided by the local prosecutor's office in Manhattan, notably for murder linked to an "act of terrorism."
Since December 4, the assassination has provoked numerous condemnations, but also a deluge of hateful comments on social networks against American health insurance programs, illustrating a deep anger towards a system accused of privileging profit over care and of unfairly refusing medical care.
Luigi Mangione has received support on social media. On Thursday, some protesters showed up outside the courts where he appeared, some wearing T-shirts with his image or holding signs that read: "Health insurance practices terrorize the population."
In a document summarizing the charges, investigators said they had no doubt that Luigi Mangione had planned his act.
In a notebook found on him at the time of his arrest, he wrote on the date “8/15” (August 15) that “the target is insurance,” because it “checks all the boxes.” As of October 22, 2024, he added: “1.5 months. An investor conference is a real bargain.” On the morning of December 4, Brian Thompson was scheduled to attend an investor conference.
– No accomplice –
Luigi Mangione also carried a letter to the authorities, in which he took care to specify that he had no accomplices.
The praise he has received has been condemned by authorities, and the New York police expressed concern in an internal memo that Luigi Mangione was becoming a "role model."
According to the American justice system, "Mangione carefully planned the execution of Brian Thompson with the aim of launching a public debate on the health sector."
"But this was not a debate, this was a murder," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said.
According to investigators, Luigi Mangione traveled by bus from Atlanta to New York about ten days before the crime and checked into a hotel, using a fake driver's license.
On December 4, he went out at around 5:35 in the morning and waited for his target for an hour in the dark of night in front of his hotel before shooting him in cold blood. He fled on an electric bike, then by taxi and managed to leave the city.
But five days later, the man whose partially masked face appeared on surveillance cameras was recognized by an employee at a McDonald's in the small rural town of Altoona, 300 miles west of New York.
When the police arrived on the scene, Luigi Mangione provided the same driver's license that was used in the New York hotel and the police found on him a weapon similar to the one used to kill Brian Thompson.
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