Accused health boss gunman in wild court outburst
The man accused over the brazen daylight shooting of an American healthcare boss will fight his extradition to New York on murder charges, a court has heard.
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, appeared in a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday (local time), where his lawyer Tom Dickey said he anticipated a not guilty plea for Luigi Mangione.
âWeâve pled not guilty, at least to the charges in Pennsylvania. Like I said Iâm not aware of any actual charges in New York,â Dickey said.
âIâm telling you as his lawyer, he didnât have any ⌠representation until I got involved this afternoon. And Iâm telling you heâs pleading not guilty.â
Mangione shouted out to waiting media and struggled with police as he was led into the courtroom in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday.
âItâs completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. Itâs lived experience,â he could be heard yelling in part.
Dickey also said he told Mangione to be quiet while they were in court for his initial extradition hearing. He said Mangione then âshut his mouthâ.
âWhich is good, thatâs what he needs to do,â Dickey said.
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Asked if he was aware of what Mangione yelled as he arrived to court, Dickey said that he âheard some different versions of that, so I need to see what that statement wasâ.
âHopefully there wonât be anymore of that,â he said.
The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family was arrested a day earlier when a staff member at a local McDonaldâs â about 370 kilometres west of New York City â recognised him.
Officers found him sitting at a back table, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, according to a Pennsylvania police criminal complaint.
He initially gave them a fake ID but when an officer asked Mangione whether he had been to New York recently, he âbecame quiet and started to shakeâ, the complaint says.
When he pulled his mask down at officersâ request, âwe knew that was our guyâ, rookie Officer Tyler Frye said.
Mangione was charged with murder hours after his arrest, in the killing of Brian Thompson, who led the USâs largest medical insurance company.
He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was initially charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
Manhattan prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant, a step that could help expedite his extradition from Pennsylvania.
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Images of Mangione released on Tuesday by Pennsylvania State Police showed him pulling down his mask in the corner of the McDonaldâs while holding what appeared to be hash browns and wearing a winter jacket and beanie.
In another photo from a holding cell, he stood unsmiling with rumpled hair.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione was carrying a gun like the one used to kill Thompson and the same fake ID the shooter had used to check into a New York hostel, along with a passport and other fraudulent IDs.
NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione also had a three-page, handwritten document that shows âsome ill will toward corporate Americaâ.
A law enforcement official who was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the document included a line in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
âTo the Feds, Iâll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasnât working with anyone,â the document said, according to the official.
It also had a line that said, âI do apologise for any strife or traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it comingâ.
A grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist, Mangione is a cousin of a current Maryland state legislator.
Valedictorian at his elite Baltimore prep school, he went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a spokesperson said.
âOur family is shocked and devastated by Luigiâs arrest,â Mangioneâs family said in a statement posted on social media late on Monday by his cousin Maryland state delegate Nino Mangione.
âWe offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.â
Mangione has also written that the US has the worldâs most expensive health care system and that profits of major corporations continue to rise while âour life expectancyâ does not, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by the Associated Press and based on a review of his hand-written notes and social media posts.
Mangione called âUnabomberâ Ted Kaczynski a âpolitical revolutionaryâ and may have found inspiration from the man who carried out bombings while railing against modern society and technology, according to the police bulletin.
 â with AAP
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