Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty in a New York court to the December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
The 28-year-old American faces life in prison following his unexpected change of plea on Friday, with formal sentencing scheduled to take place in December 2026.
According to a report by the New York Times, Mangione told the court that he shot Thompson and knew at the time that he was committing a crime. He had previously denied the charges, and it remains unclear why he decided to alter his legal position.
Mangione told the court that he determined the location of the UnitedHealthcare annual investor conference by gathering information directly from the company while posing as an investor. He added that he carried out the fatal shooting using a firearm printed on a 3D printer.
Details of the Manhattan attack
Thompson, 50, was shot on the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, near the Hilton hotel in Manhattan as he walked to attend the company's annual conference for investors. The shooter escaped the scene on a bicycle through Central Park before leaving New York City aboard a bus.
Following a five-day nationwide search, United States law enforcement officers arrested Mangione in a neighbouring state. Police identified the suspect as a native of Maryland.
Investigators recovered a three-page manifesto among Mangione's belongings that contained explicit condemnations of medical insurance providers. Shell casings recovered from the crime scene were inscribed with the phrase triple D, standing for deny, defense, depose, a slogan used by insurance industry critics to describe how insurers routinely reject patient claims.
Public reaction and corporate background
The killing sparked widespread public discussion across the United States. Some Americans viewed the attack as an act of defiance against a private healthcare insurance system they consider unjust, with a portion of the public voicing support for the defendant.
UnitedHealthcare is the medical insurance division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurance corporation in the United States measured by both annual revenue and total number of insured clients. The conglomerate provides health coverage to tens of millions of individuals nationwide.
3D-printed firearms, often referred to as ghost guns because they lack traditional serial numbers, have drawn growing concern from law enforcement agencies nationwide due to the challenge of tracking untraceable weapons.
