Luigi Mangione, suspected of having assassinated an American health insurance boss in early December to take revenge against this sector, was transferred Thursday to New York where justice awaits to try him for murder with a “terrorist” dimension.
The transfer was carefully staged by US authorities and 24-hour news channels showed the 26-year-old, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, being slowly escorted by police officers wearing helmets and machine guns after his landing in New York aboard a helicopter.
The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, who heads the New York police force, accompanied the procession.
In the morning, Luigi Mangione appeared in a Pennsylvania state court near where he was arrested on December 9. He did not oppose his transfer to justice in New York, where the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthCare, the country’s leading private health insurer, Brian Thompson, had taken place five days earlier.
His arrival and departure took place calmly, unlike the day after his arrest, when he appeared very agitated and vehement, throwing the words “this is an insult to the intelligence of the American people”.
Luigi Mangione could be presented as early as Thursday afternoon in Manhattan federal court, to be served with charges including murder and illegal use of a firearm, according to a court document.
These federal prosecutions are now in addition to those already decided at the local level by a grand jury of citizens of the State of New York, which decided to indict him for murder linked to an “act of terrorism”. The Manhattan prosecutor’s office considers that Luigi Mangione shot and killed the general director of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, 50, to provoke “terror”.
When he was arrested, Luigi Mangione was carrying a three-page handwritten text targeting the health insurance sector.
– “shocking celebration” –
The assassination provoked numerous condemnations but also a deluge of hateful comments on social networks against American health insurance programs, illustrating deep anger towards a system accused of prioritizing profit over benefits. care and unfairly refuse medical care.
The young man with an engineering degree, a brilliant former student with a passion for video games and from a wealthy and influential family in Baltimore, received a lot of support on social networks.
Thursday morning, a handful of demonstrators traveled to the Hollidaysburg court to demand the release of “Luigi”. One of them held a sign that read: “health insurance practices terrorize the population.”
This praise was condemned by the authorities and the New York police expressed concern in an internal memo that Luigi Mangione was becoming an “example to follow”.
“We were the spectators of a shocking and appalling celebration of a cold-blooded murder,” blasted Tuesday the boss of the New York police (NYPD) Jessica Tisch, who denounced a “rampage” on the networks social media to “applaud this cowardly attack”.
From December 4, the images captured by video surveillance of the killer coldly holding his weapon and shooting the 50-year-old boss, married and father of two children, went around the world. The suspect managed to flee and leave New York.
Five days later, Luigi Mangione was recognized and arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, a small rural town about 300 miles west of New York, Pennsylvania.
Several elements implicate him in the murder, according to the police: his fingerprints were found near the crime scene, as were cartridge cases corresponding to the weapon kit, some of which were made using a printer 3D, found on him.
Before the courts of the State of New York, he faces a maximum of life in prison without parole.
In federal court, he would face the death penalty.
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