Luigi Mangione, charged with fatally shooting a prominent insurance executive on a New York City street, is reportedly motivating others to resort to violence, including the shooter from last month’s fatal incident at the NFL headquarters in Manhattan, federal prosecutors claim in a recent court document.
The prosecutors stated in a filing on Wednesday that Mangione is a public threat as he is actively encouraging others to mimic his actions.
“In simple terms, the defendant aimed to make violence seem normal for achieving ideological or political goals,” the document noted. “Following the murder, some factions openly supporting the defendant have started to see violence as an acceptable or even necessary alternative to rational political debate.”
Mangione, 27, is awaiting trial, charged in the Dec. 4, 2024, ambush killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione was apprehended in Pennsylvania five days after the deadly shooting and has entered a not guilty plea to federal charges including murder, two counts of stalking, and a firearms violation for allegedly using a silencer. He also faces state murder charges.
Since his capture, Mangione has “actively gained followers” by launching a website where he communicates directly with supporters and shares letters of support he has received while imprisoned in the Brooklyn federal jail, according to the prosecutors.
In April, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the government’s decision to pursue the death penalty against Mangione, labeling the act as “political violence” and a “deliberate, cold-blooded assassination that stunned the nation.”
The new filing by federal prosecutors is an attempt to counter a defense motion for more information on what the government intends to offer as evidence that Mangione should be put to death for a killing that has made him a folk hero to some members of the public.
In May, Mangione’s legal defense fund surpassed $1 million in donations from more than 28,000 people, many of whom are angry with the nation’s for-profit medical system.
To buttress their argument that Mangione was inspiring more mayhem, prosecutors in a footnote cited the July 28 attack on pro football’s Park Avenue headquarters by a gunman named Shane Tamura, who fatally shot an off-duty New York City police officer, a Blackstone executive and two other people, before killing himself.
“Like Mangione, Tamura left behind a piece of evidence for investigators to find, blaming the NFL and football for causing chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” the prosecutors wrote, referring to the brain disease often caused by concussions. “Almost immediately, members of the public sympathetic to the defendant touted Tamura’s actions as a laudable continuation of the defendant’s philosophy.”
Mangione laid out his plans against the “deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” in a red notebook that investigators found after his arrest, New York state prosecutors alleged in a June court filing.
The lawyer who represents Mangione in the federal case did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
