Please enter a valid email address. Having trouble? Click here.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 in Manhattan, is headed back to New York City after waiving extradition on Thursday morning. Mangione, 26, faces murder charges in New York, where he will be transported as soon as possible from Pennsylvania, where he is currently in custody on other charges.
Mangione arrived at the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg around 7:40 a.m. Thursday and was escorted by police. He did not say anything as he entered the building.
A New York Police Department officer also walked in through the back entrance, and NYPD officers were seen sitting in the front row of the room where Mangione’s court proceedings took place.
Several people outside the courthouse held signs that read “Deny, Defend, Depose,” the same message that Mangione allegedly left on shell casings at the scene of Thompson’s murder and words that are commonly used among insurance providers when they reject claims.
Mangione’s defense officially filed his extradition waiver later on Thursday morning, which Judge David Consiglio signed, approving the suspect’s return to Manhattan.
Mangione may also be facing federal charges in the near future, according to The New York Post. The New York defense attorney for Mangione, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told Fox News Digital that Mangione is likely to face federal charges, which would be a “highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
New York prosecutors say Mangione plotted to travel to New York, find Thompson, a Minnesota resident in town for UnitedHealthcare’s annual shareholder conference, and kill him. Mangione allegedly shot Thompson from behind with a 3D-printed ghost gun and suppressor.
Mangione is originally from Maryland and has recently lived in California and Hawaii. He graduated valedictorian from the Gilman School, a private, all-boys high school in Baltimore, in 2016. He went on to receive his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
The day after his arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 10, Mangione announced that he would not waive extradition. However, sources told Fox News on Tuesday that Mangione plans to give up that fight and waive extradition, clearing the way for his return to New York City. If he does waive extradition, he will immediately be transported into NYPD custody.