The family of Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League graduate accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, said they were “devastated” by his arrest – as it was revealed the 26-year-old alleged gunman spiraled after a “traumatic” back operation. .
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said late Monday in a statement released by his cousin Nino Mangione, a Republican Baltimore County representative.
“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and ask people to pray for everyone involved. We are devastated by this news,” the Mangione family said.
The family members added that they “cannot comment on news reports” about the accused killer, who was arrested Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania after a hectic five-day manhunt.
“We only know what we have read in the media,” the family said.
Luigi Mangione was reported to police by an Altoona McDonald’s employee, who recognized the suspected shooter in photos released by the New York Police Department.
Local officers approached him while he was eating at the restaurant and said he “began shaking” when they asked if he had been to New York recently, according to a criminal complaint.
He provided them with a fake New Jersey ID — believed to be the same one he used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the murder — and was taken into custody.
Police discovered a ghost gun with a silencer on him and other items that sources said were “consistent” with what police were looking for, including a rambling, handwritten manifesto claiming “these parasites were coming.”
“I apologize for any trauma, but it had to be done,” he wrote.
Luigi Mangione, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, comes from a wealthy real estate family that is prominent in their Maryland community.
He grew up outside Baltimore in Towson and his family owns two sprawling country clubs, a local radio station and several other real estate companies.
He became estranged from his friends and family in the weeks leading up to the shooting, according to law enforcement sources.
Mangione’s mother reported him missing on November 18 – possibly from a home in San Francisco, where he lived for a while – and contacted his peers who tried to track him down.
What we know about the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
- Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was shot outside a luxury Midtown hotel on Wednesday in a “brazen, targeted attack,” police said.
- Thompson was named CEO of UnitedHealth in April 2021. He joined the company in 2004. He was one of several senior executives at the company under investigation by the Justice Department.
- Thompson’s wife, Paulette, said her husband had received threats before he was killed.
- Thompson’s shooting sparked sick support online and even sparked a tacky lookalike contest in New York.
- A person of interest has been arrested by police officers at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
- The suspect has been identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, originally from Towson, Maryland. He is a former Ivy League student who hated the medical community.
Follow The Post’s live updates on the news surrounding the murder of Brian Thompson.
One of his former classmates at the Gilman School in Baltimore related it New York Times that he thought he was going dark after having back surgery several months earlier.
A friend and former roommate in Hawaii also told CNN that Mangione had previously spoken about his back problems.
“When I first interviewed him, before he moved here, I remember him saying he had a back problem and hoped to get stronger in Hawaii,” RJ Martin said.
The roommate said Mangione’s back problems were so “traumatic and difficult” that one simple surfing lesson left him bedridden for a week.
When he had surgery, Martin said, his friend sent him images of the X-rays.
“It looked horrific, with just giant screws going into his spine,” he said.
Other former high school friends said the high-achieving valedictorian went “absolutely crazy” after the surgery, according to Jack Mac, an employee at sports and pop culture store Barstool Sports.
“Spoke to a source who had a lot of friends who went to high school with Luigi Mangione. What keeps coming up is a back operation that ‘changed everything’ for him and he went ‘absolutely crazy’.” Mac unveiled on X.
Mangione “has not made any statement” since his arrest, law enforcement officials said at an evening news conference in Pennsylvania.
Hours after being indicted on weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, he was charged with murder in New York.
Thompson, 50, was shot last Wednesday as he walked alone and without security to a Hilton hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference.
