Federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, claim in a new filing that his actions helped inspire last month’s mass shooting at NFL headquarters in New York City.
“Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,” prosecutors wrote in a filing in Manhattan federal court, according to ABC News on Friday.
They pointed to parallels between Thompson’s December 2024 killing and the July 28, 2025, attack on the NFL office, which occurred just blocks from where Thompson was shot. The filing said Mangione sought a crime that would resonate beyond Thompson and stoke public anger at the health insurance industry.
Prosecutors compared Mangione’s writings to those of Shane Tamura, 25, who opened fire at 345 Park Avenue, killing four before dying at the scene. Like Mangione, Tamura left behind a manifesto. In a letter, he blamed football for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.
Mangione’s writings included notes on bullets marked “deny,” “depose” and “delay.” In a journal, he wrote that his target was “insurance” because “it checks every box,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Mangione poses a continuing danger by influencing others, citing “acolytes” who have embraced violence since Thompson’s killing. They said that the ongoing threat justifies the pursuit of capital punishment.
The filing also argued that Mangione has openly cultivated supporters online, where he catalogs letters of support on his website.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a five-day manhunt and has pleaded not guilty to Thompson’s Dec. 4, 2024, murder. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. No federal trial date has been set.
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