Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Tuesday directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last year.
Mangione, 26, was federally charged in December with stalking and murdering Thompson after the CEO was fatally shot on the streets of midtown Manhattan. He was also charged with first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism by state prosecutors.
Bondi said that she was directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty as part of “President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement.
Mangione has pled not guilty to all charges. His lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment about the attorney general’s request.
Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing and subsequent colossal manhunt for his masked assassin captivated the nation for weeks.
The gunman fled on a bike outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson was staying for the health care company’s annual investors’ meeting, police said. City surveillance footage showed the gunman riding into Central Park before disappearing.
Five days later, on Dec. 9, Mangione was recognized in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and arrested that day.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
