THE Ivy League graduate accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.
Luigi Mangione, who is due in court on Thursday, is expected to waive his right to extradition to , where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he committed the "brazen, targeted, fatal shooting."
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Mangione, who is being held in the State Correctional Institution in Huntington, , on gun and forgery charges, was indicted on 11 criminal counts on Tuesday in connection with the December 4 in Midtown, Manhattan.
"This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock, and attention, and intimidation," Bragg said during an afternoon press conference.
"It occurred in one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike - commenters and business people just starting out on their day."
The suspect was charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and forgery crimes.
Prosecutors said Mangione's actions were an intent to inflict terror after a Manhattan grand jury indicted the suspect of second-degree murder as a crime of terrorism.
A law passed in New York following the September 11, 2001, attacks allows prosecutors to charge crimes as acts of terrorism.
Crimes can be considered acts of terrorism when they are "intended to intimate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion, and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination, or kidnapping," the state reads.
"This was a killing to invoke terror," Bragg said.
"This was not an ordinary killing, not to suggest that any killing ordinary, but this was extraordinary, and the New York State Legislature has set out both the paths, both the murder one and murder two, and this, we allege, is squarely within those statutes which talk about intending to do exactly what we saw happen here."
'SOMETHING HE WOULD DO'
A New York detective revealed that an field office in San Francisco forwarded a tip to the department about a missing person case from November 18 that resembled the Midtown shooter.
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"They had a conversation where she didn't indicate that it was son in the photograph, but said it might be something that she could see him doing," the official said of the December 7 conversation.
Kathleen told police she had not spoken to her son since July 1, according to .
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Bragg said Mangione waited for Thompson for about an hour outside the Hilton hotel in the early hours of December 7 before allegedly sneaking up behind the healthcare executive and firing three shots.