Luigi Mangione has become one of the most talked-about defendants in recent memory — but as his upcoming murder trial dominates headlines, many are still asking the same basic question: Who did Luigi Mangione allegedly shoot? The Ivy League graduate stands accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is now facing prosecution in three separate jurisdictions, with his New York state trial scheduled to begin on September 8, 2026.
Who Did Luigi Mangioni Allegedly Shoot?
The victim at the center of the case is Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States.
Thompson started at UnitedHealthcare in 2004 and was named chief executive in April 2021. He was paid $10.2 million in 2024, according to the BBC.
Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Thompson worked as a manager at accountancy giant PwC for several years.
Thompson was gunned down on a Manhattan street on the morning of December 4, 2024, in what prosecutors have described as a targeted attack.
The killing sparked a nearly week-long manhunt that ended when Mangione was taken into custody in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 2024. Since being arrested, the Maryland native has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is awaiting trial.
Luigi Mangione Was Arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s
Mangione was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona after an employee reportedly recognized him from images that circulated during the manhunt. According to testimony from Christy Wasser of the Altoona Police Department, officers found a handgun, a silencer and a magazine loaded with bullets inside his backpack during the arrest.
Wasser told the court she had probable cause to search the bag because she was concerned it could contain a bomb. Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has pushed back on that justification, noting that Wasser did not clear customers out of the restaurant or call a bomb squad.
Bodycam footage played in court also confirmed that officers questioned Mangione for nearly 20 minutes before reading him his Miranda rights and placing him in handcuffs — a detail his defense team has used in efforts to suppress evidence and statements.
Luigi Mangione’s Alleged To-Do List After the Murder
One of the most striking pieces of evidence to emerge during pretrial hearings was a red notebook found inside Mangione’s backpack at the time of his arrest. The notebook contained a handwritten entry dated December 5, 2024 — the day after Thompson was killed.
The list reportedly included bullet points such as “change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows” and “check reports for current situation.” Another entry mentioned taking a “bus to Penn Station” and checking “red-eyes” to Pittsburgh, along with a reminder to “keep momentum” because the “FBI [is] slower overnight.”
The notebook also featured a hand-drawn map identifying Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis and other cities as possible escape routes. Prosecutors have also pointed to other writings in which Mangione allegedly outlined his intention to “wack” — a misspelling of “whack” — a health insurance executive.
Judge Gregory Carro Dropped Terrorism Charges Against Luigi Mangione
In a significant development for the defense, Judge Gregory Carro dropped two of the most serious charges against Mangione on September 16, 2025. The judge ruled that there was “insufficient” evidence to support first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism and second-degree murder as a crime of terrorism, noting that terrorism “has been famously difficult to define.”
“While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’ and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal,” Carro wrote in the filing.
The judge did keep a separate count of second-degree murder unrelated to terrorism, along with various weapons charges. A second-degree murder count carries a penalty of 15 years to life behind bars, with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
In response, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement to the Associated Press, “We respect the court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts.”
Key Evidence Will Be Admissible in Luigi Mangione’s Trial
In a major blow to Mangione’s defense, Carro ruled on May 18, 2026, that several key pieces of evidence can be presented to a jury when the state trial begins on September 8, 2026. That includes the 3D-printed handgun equipped with a silencer and the notebook prosecutors say detailed his plans.
The ruling came after nine days of pretrial hearings at the Manhattan Criminal Court in December 2025. Mangione’s defense team had argued that the items should be thrown out because police did not have a search warrant when they arrested him.
Carro determined that the gun and notebook could be used because police discovered both items at their station. However, in a partial win for the defense, he ruled that other pieces of evidence — including a loaded gun magazine, passport, cellphone, wallet and computer chip — were inadmissible due to what he called an “improper, warrantless search” at McDonald’s.
Luigi Mangione Faces Charges in Multiple Jurisdictions
Mangione is being prosecuted on three fronts. In New York, he has pleaded not guilty to 11 state charges and faces life in prison. He was also hit with four federal charges, though U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett dismissed two of the counts — including murder through the use of a firearm — in January, sparing Mangione of the death penalty in that case. Garnett also ruled that the gun and other evidence can be used in the federal trial, which is set to begin in January 2027.
Additionally, the Maryland native faces five charges in Pennsylvania, including carrying a firearm without a license and providing false identification to law enforcement. He did not enter a plea there before being extradited to New York.
His attorneys — and Mangione himself — have called the multi-jurisdiction approach “double jeopardy,” a legal phrase used to describe a person being prosecuted twice for the same offense.
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
