The man accused of killing United Healthcare's CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said as they worked to bring him to a New York court from a Pennsylvania jail, the Associated Press reports. Luigi Mangioni already was charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson but the terror allegation is new. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thompson’s death on a midtown Manhattan street “was a killing that was intended to evoke terror. And we’ve seen that reaction.” Thompson, 50, was shot while walking to a hotel where Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare — the biggest U.S. medical insurer — was holding an investor conference. The killing kindled a fiery outpouring of resentment toward health insurance firms as Americans swapped stories online and elsewhere of being denied coverage, left in limbo as doctors and insurers disagreed, and stuck with sizeable bills. The shooting rattled executive suites as “wanted” posters with other health care executives’ names and faces appeared on New York streets and some social media users extolled Mangione’s deed as payback.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday that “any attempt to rationalize this is vile, reckless and offensive to our deeply held principles of justice.” A New York law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks allows prosecutors to charge crimes as acts of terrorism when they’re “intended to intimidate 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.” Prosecutors have applied the statute to various contexts. Some related to international extremism, but the law was first used against a Bronx gang member after a hail of gunfire killed a 10-year-old girl and paralyzed a man outside a christening party in 2002. The state’s highest court said the conduct didn't amount to terrorism, and a retrial produced convictions on other charges. Thompson’s killing, Bragg noted, happened early on a workday in an area frequented by commuters, businesspeople and tourists. “This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,” the district attorney said. Police have said that when Mangione was arrested. he was carrying the gun used to kill Thompson, a passport and various fake IDs, including one that the suspected shooter presented to check into a New York hostel. The 26-year-old was charged with Pennsylvania gun and forgery offenses and locked up without bail. His Pennsylvania lawyer has questioned the evidence for the forgery charge and the legal grounding for the gun charge.
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