Luigi Mangione charged by feds with UnitedHealthcare CEO murder

Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Luigi Mangione with murder, stalking and a firearms crime in the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The federal criminal complaint was unsealed Thursday as Mangione, 26, agreed to be extradited to New York to face state court murder charges in Manhattan for Thompson’s slaying.

Mangione is expected to appear later Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on the federal complaint.

Mangione consented to be taken by authorities to New York at a hearing Thursday morning in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

Afterward, he was taken to a plane in Altoona, which departed for New York.

The new federal complaint hinges on the two stalking counts, which claim that Mangione traveled to New York on Nov. 24 and used electronic communication devices to surveil and ultimately kill Thompson. Both stalking counts note that the travel and devices involved so-called interstate commerce, which federal prosecutors often use as grounds for filing criminal charges that otherwise might be handled exclusively by local or state prosecutors.

The third and fourth federal counts — of murder through use of a firearm, and firearms offense — accuse Mangione of using and carrying a handgun in relation to the stalking offenses.

Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Thompson as the CEO was headed into the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan for an investor day of his company’s parent, UnitedHealth Group.

He was arrested five days later in Altoona after someone reported a suspicious person in a McDonald’s.

The University of Pennsylvania graduate was indicted Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court on one count of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism.

He was also charged with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

This is developing news. Check back for updates.