Luigi Mangione revealed in federal court on Friday that he posed as an investor to obtain information from UnitedHealthcare about its annual investor conference in New York City in 2024. He traveled to the city and fatally shot the company’s chief executive on a sidewalk outside the site of the event, he said.
“I understood that my action would place him in fear of death or serious bodily injury,” Mr. Mangione said during a hearing in which he pleaded guilty to federal charges in the killing of the executive, Brian Thompson. “I knew what I was doing was illegal.”
As he spoke in the packed courtroom, Mr. Thompson’s widow, Paulette Thompson, was seated in the first row behind federal prosecutors. She lowered her eyes as another family member wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Mr. Mangione’s admissions before Judge Margaret M. Garnett of Federal District Court in Manhattan lasted just a few minutes, but they represented the first time he had publicly spoken about the killing of Mr. Thompson, a father of two, on Dec. 4, 2024.
In his statement, Mr. Mangione said that after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back and navigating the health insurance industry, he heard about UnitedHealthcare’s upcoming investor conference and sought to learn its location.
He said UnitedHealthcare’s stated mission was to “make the health system work better for everyone,” adding that the conference would be attended by executives, the board of directors and hundreds of investors but not by doctors, nurses and patients.
With a fairly steady voice and little emotion, he then laid out what he did in the weeks before Mr. Thompson’s killing.
He said he used a 3-D printer to make parts of a firearm, which he equipped with a silencer and a magazine. He said he traveled to Manhattan in November, with the intent of shooting Mr. Thompson.
After his arrival, he said, he emailed “UnitedHealthcare leadership” and posed as an investor at a firm managing millions of dollars in assets, to obtain information about the conference.
“Unlike my previous interactions with insurers,” Mr. Mangione said, “I received an immediate response within an hour.”
As the hearing continued, the judge asked Mr. Mangione how he pleaded to the two counts of stalking resulting in Mr. Thompson’s death.
“Guilty,” he replied.
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