Newest Assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO: Experienced Former Prosecutor to Represent Luigi Mangione in New York

Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week, has hired a veteran former New York prosecutor to defend him against murder charges.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been retained to represent Mangione, according to a statement from her law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, on Friday evening.

Friedman Agnifilo served as a deputy in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2014 to 2021. According to a biography on her law firm’s website, she played a leading role in prosecuting “high-profile violent crime cases,” including cases involving mental health and unsolved homicides.

Mangione, 26, is being held at a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied him bail on Tuesday.

In Pennsylvania, where he was arrested on Monday, Mangione is charged with, among other things, the alleged possession of an untraceable ghost weapon. In New York, he is charged with, among other things, second-degree murder.

Earlier this week, Mangione’s lawyer in Pennsylvania said he intended to fight extradition to New York, but there were signs that he could waive extradition to New York City as early as Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said , on Friday.

“There are indications that the defendant may waive it, but that waiver is not complete until a trial,” Bragg said.

A trial in Pennsylvania could be scheduled for Tuesday at the earliest, Bragg said.

“So until then, we will continue to move forward on parallel paths,” he said. “We will be ready whether he waives extradition or whether he challenges extradition.”

Evidence linking Mangione to the murder, authorities say, includes three bullet casings found outside the midtown Manhattan hotel where Thompson was fatally shot, which match the gun allegedly used during his arrest was found on Mangione, police announced Wednesday. According to police, fingerprints from a water bottle and a Kind Bar near the crime scene were also linked to Mangione.

Authorities are still trying to access a phone that police found in an alley after the shooting and is believed to be connected to the suspect, sources said Thursday. Sources said police obtained a search warrant for the phone.

According to the writings, Mangione was fixated on society for months, sources say

Law enforcement sources said earlier Friday that the writings seized from Mangione suggested he had developed a fixation and increasing ill will toward the company and had allegedly been talking for months about harming its leader.

That fixation would eventually evolve into an alleged plan to shoot that CEO, the sources said.

Some of the entries in the notebook seized from Mangione when he was arrested in Pennsylvania earlier this week contained data dating back to mid-2024, the sources said.

Some of the notes were diary-style, documenting how he was feeling, what he was doing that day, and also documenting a desire to focus on his health and himself and finding his purpose, the sources said.

Then, over time — as Mangione allegedly lost touch with friends and family and became increasingly isolated — some of his writings suggested a deterioration in his thinking and mental state, illustrating a gradual convergence toward the alleged killing plan, sources said, the UnitedHealthCare CEO at their “Annual Conference on Parasite Bean Counters.”

Suspect left New York by train

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday, nearly a week after the Dec. 4 murder in New York City.

The suspect left New York City by train after the shooting, rather than by bus as initially thought, police sources told ABC News.

Investigators initially believed Mangione had boarded a bus at the Port Authority terminal at the George Washington Bridge, where he was seen on surveillance cameras as a taxi dropped him off, according to investigators. There was no picture of Mangione actually getting on a bus.

Now, police sources say there is video evidence showing Mangione left the George Washington Bridge bus station, headed south to Penn Station and left New York City by train for Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania authorities said Mangione then spent several days crossing the state from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Tip from San Francisco

The FBI’s New York field office said Friday that among the numerous tips, the agency also received a tip from San Francisco police “regarding the possible identity of the suspect.” The FBI said it “conducted routine investigations and forwarded this and other tips to the New York Police Department.”

The NYPD previously said none of the hundreds of tips it received contained Mangione’s identity.

The NYPD confirmed Friday that it received the FBI tip but that it was not shared by the agency in a way that would distinguish it from another law enforcement agency.

The tip was subsequently not prioritized as it might have been if NYPD investigators had known it came from another police department, the NYPD said.

The NYPD had sent detectives to Georgia to follow up on leads from the Atlanta Police Department. The NYPD did not follow up on the San Francisco tip in this way because, an NYPD source said, that was how the tip was passed along by the FBI.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Friday he believes Mangione became radicalized while studying at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Here you have a young man who went to an Ivy League school, came from a wealthy background and family, and had all the things that many Americans would like to have. But he found he hated corporations and other things,” Adams said on GMGT Live’s “The Reset Talk Show.” “We are radicalizing our children in general, but specifically on these Ivy League campuses.”

Mangione’s writings, obtained by ABC News, claim that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world but ranks 42nd in life expectancy. He said UnitedHealthcare was “always growing, but like our life expectancy? No, the reality is that these (inaudible) have simply become too powerful and continue to abuse our country for immense profit.”

“I apologize for any traumatic confrontation, but it had to be done,” he reportedly wrote. “Honestly, these parasites just had it.”

According to UnitedHealth Group, neither Mangione nor his parents had insurance through UnitedHealthcare.

Thompson’s murder sparked anger online at the health insurance industry, and some people celebrated Mangione online. Supporters of Mangione have donated money to a defense fund set up for him, sparking concerns among law enforcement that Mangione could be made a martyr.

Adams attributed the support Mangione is receiving to “anger and pain.”

“People know how difficult it is to navigate our healthcare system on many levels, how high the costs of the healthcare system are. Some of the denials, some of the illnesses that aren’t covered. And all across America, people have experienced this disappointment. And “So you’re seeing a reaction to that,” Adams said. “And we can’t signal that if you’re angry about something, if you’re angry because you got a ticket, you’re going to react with violence.”