Luigi Mangione is accused of murdering the CEO of the health care

Luigi Mangione has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the New York district attorney said Tuesday.

Mr. Mangione faces various charges, including first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder, one of which describes the killing as an act of “terrorism,” Bragg said.

“The intent was to sow terror,” New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, calling the shooting a “horrific, well-planned and targeted murder.”

Mr. Mangione is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 19 on whether he will be extradited to New York on the charges, although Bragg suggested the suspect may not fight extradition.

“We have indications that the defendant may waive this hearing,” Bragg said.

The extradition hearing is scheduled for the same day as Mr. Mangione’s preliminary hearing on weapons charges in Pennsylvania.

Appearing at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Bragg and New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch blasted the public for praising Mr. Mangione after the Dec. 4 shooting.

“In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson’s murder, we have witnessed a shocking and horrifying celebration of cold-blooded murder,” Tisch said. “We don’t celebrate killings and we don’t honor the killing of anybody.”

In addition to murder, the suspect is also charged with weapons and forgery. If convicted of the most serious charges brought against him — first-degree murder and second-degree murder as an act of terrorism — Mr. Mangione could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

When asked about the specific terrorism charges, Bragg said that “in its simplest terms, it was a murder intended to cause terror.”

Five days after Mr. Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed, Mr. Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., with a fake ID and a so-called “ghost gun,” the police said.

His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, said he had seen no evidence linking Mr Mangione’s gun to the crime.

Last week, New York prosecutors began sharing evidence in their case against Mr. Mangione with a grand jury.

If extradited, the 26-year-old will likely be held at Rikers Island or another New York prison.

Evidence against Mr Mangione includes positive match his fingerprints along with those found at the crime scene, Commissioner Tisch said.

According to District Attorney Bragg, the suspect arrived in New York on November 24, staying at a hostel in Manhattan using fake identification before attacking Mr Thompson 10 days later.

In addition to the ghost gun – a gun assembled from untraceable parts – and a fake ID, a passport and a handwritten document indicating “motivation and mindset” were also found on Mr Mangione when he was arrested, police said.

During a press conference Tuesday announcing the charges in New York City, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney also described communication with the suspect’s mother, who filed her son’s missing report in San Francisco in November.

After the manhunt for the shooting suspect began, that report was passed on to authorities, who contacted Mr. Mangione’s mother. According to Detective Kenney, his mother said she did not identify her son as a suspect, but said “it could have been something she could see him doing.”

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Mangione was charged with forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, falsifying records or identification, possession of instruments of crime and providing false documents to police.

While Mr. Mangione awaits his fate in the New York court system, he remains in maximum security at the Huntingdon State Correctional Facility in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.

He was denied bail.