In a high-profile case that has split American public opinion amid long-simmering anger over the U.S. commercial healthcare system, 28-year-old Luigi Mangione has formally admitted to fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson during a court hearing Friday, while entering a guilty plea to federal stalking charges.
Mangione’s admission comes nearly eight months after the December 2024 shooting that sent shockwaves through corporate America. “On the morning of December 4, I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione told a federal judge, confirming the premeditated attack he carried out to protest what he calls a broken U.S. health insurance system. Thompson, 50, was killed at a Manhattan conference venue, just days after Mangione traveled to New York from Atlanta via bus, prosecutors confirmed.
According to official case details, Mangione used false identification to check into a Manhattan hostel roughly 10 days before the shooting, and conducted multiple reconnaissance missions near Thompson’s hotel and the planned attack site. He acknowledged in court Friday that he constructed the murder weapon using a 3D printer, then outfitted it with an aftermarket silencer and extended magazine. Law enforcement recovered the homemade gun, the silencer, and a handwritten planning checklist that included reminders to complete intelligence checks and purchase a camera from a local Best Buy when they arrested Mangione five days after the shooting following a multi-state manhunt. He was taken into custody at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after restaurant staff recognized him and tipped off authorities.
Mangione is currently facing stalking charges in federal court and separate murder charges in New York state court. Following his guilty plea on Friday, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo announced that her legal team had filed a motion to dismiss the state charges, arguing that dual prosecution for the same conduct violates New York’s double jeopardy protections.
A sentencing hearing for the federal stalking charge is scheduled for December 18, and federal prosecutors have confirmed they will push for a life sentence. Both the federal stalking charge and state murder charge carry a maximum possible life sentence; two additional federal charges that would have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty were thrown out by a judge earlier this year.
The slaying of Thompson has pulled back the curtain on deep, widespread public frustration with the profitable U.S. private healthcare system, and the case has exacerbated already sharp political divides across the country. While former President Donald Trump and other leading conservative figures have demanded harsh punishment to set an example for would-be political violence, many working-class Americans frustrated by soaring healthcare costs and insurance denials have embraced Mangione as a folk hero. On Friday, dozens of supporters gathered outside the heavily fortified Manhattan courthouse as a police helicopter circled overhead, while inside the courtroom, Thompson’s family attended the hearing. As Thompson’s relatives left the courthouse in a convoy of black SUVs, one onlooker shouted “America loves Luigi” toward their vehicle.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald pushed back against any glorification of the attack following the hearing, telling reporters: “There can be no celebrity in assassination.” Under U.S. legal precedent, it is constitutionally permitted for defendants to face charges in both state and federal court for the same underlying criminal conduct, so long as the charges are distinct, as they are in Mangione’s case.