Luigi Mangione was detained by Pennsylvania police as a person of interest in connection with the Dec. 9 murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. An Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s employee recognized him from photos police posted recently and called the police. The New York Times claims that he was carrying a gun, a silencer and other identification, but they have not yet arrested or charged him in relation to the murder.
On Dec. 4, the internet exploded because of a video of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson who was killed in Midtown Manhattan. The bullets on the shell casings found at the scene of the shooting in New York were inscribed with the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.”
What do we know about Luigi Mangione?
When he was arrested, Mangione was found with a “handwritten document” that “spoke to both his motivation and mindset” about why he killed Brian Thompson. He apparently has “Some ill-will towards corporate America” is what New York’s head detective said.
Mangione was born and raised in Maryland. He also has connections to San Francisco and Hawaii. According to his social media accounts, he is from Towson, a wealthy neighborhood north of Baltimore.
The suspected shooter is the cousin of a current state legislator from Maryland and his grandfather is a wealthy real estate developer and philanthropist. He went to Baltimore’s prestigious all-boys Gilman School. This private school’s alumni include businessmen, NFL players and former state senators and the annual tuition can reach $37,690.
After graduating in 2016, Mangione attended one of America’s top Ivy League universities, the University of Pennsylvania. He started a club called UPGRADE, or UPenn Game Research and Development Environment, and studied computer science while there. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from this university. He would go on to use his degree as he co-founded his computer gaming firm that produced simple games.
During 2022, Mangione was living in Hawaii and he reportedly lived at Surfbreak, a co-living space aimed at remote workers in Honolulu’s Waikiki neighborhood. Mangione left Honolulu to get surgery on the U.S. mainland for persistent back discomfort that he had experienced since his childhood days. Government officials were able to hack his Google Drive, and they discovered he was suffering from a painful back problem. Mangione described his health condition as spondylolisthesis, an extremely painful disorder in which one of the spine’s bones slides forward. He describes the severity of his “injury” as “low grade two” and might be the reason he was fed up with the health care system.
Update: He has officially been charged with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
