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A friend from high school suspect arrested for capital murder UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week he said the news “came out of nowhere” and described the situation as “just, really surreal”.
“He had a lot going for him,” Ellison Jordan, who graduated from Gilman with the 26-year-old Luigi Mangionehe said The Independent. “He was always cool people.”
Jordan attended Gilmanprestigious all-boys prep school in Baltimore, with Mangione, and found him to be a “smart guy” and “just a regular guy,” he said Tuesday.
“I’m sensitive about Luigi, because I went to school with him,” Jordan continued. “I hope he didn’t do it. I pray he didn’t. It’s still ‘alleged’. It’s really shocking.”
Jordan, a standout football player who went on to play defensive line at Penn State, remembered Mangione, who was their class valedictorian, as “obviously a very smart person,” though a “very quiet” person who “didn’t say much.”
When he heard that his former friend had been charged murderJordan, 27, said it took him a while to get into it.
“I heard about the general manager being shot, but to find out that he is a person of interest? It was shocking,” Jordan said. “It didn’t seem real… That he allegedly did it, it’s really hard to put into words. I know it’s a cliché, but I really don’t know what happened… It’s just very unfortunate, very crazy overall.”
ThompsonThe 50-year-old father of two, who lived in Minnesota, was fatally shot Dec. 4 as he arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan for an investor conference where he was scheduled to give a speech on UnitedHealthcare’s financial outlook for the coming years. When he arrived shortly before 7 a.m., a masked man dressed in all black stepped out from between two cars and fired several rounds into his back and leg using a 9mm silenced semi-automatic handgun. Thompson was rushed to nearby Mt. Sinai West, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Investigators found several spent and alive crime scene tour emblazoned with the words “reject,” “reject,” and “defend,” which seemed to echo the title of a 2010 book by Rutgers law professor Jay Feinman, who explored the myriad ways insurance companies deny patient claims to boost profits.
A multi-state manhunt was immediately launched, which Mangione, a UPenn graduate, managed to avoid for several days. On Monday, he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvaniaby the officer who called the police. The officers searched Mangione and found the so-called ghost gun with a silencer, numerous fake IDs, including the one he used a few days earlier to check into a Manhattan hostel under a false name, and handwritten manifesto against the US healthcare industry, authorities say.
According to Jordan, Mangione didn’t outwardly suffer, healthy, during his high school years.
“He didn’t talk about any health issues,” he said, adding that Mangione “came from a great family and you don’t expect something like this to come from someone like him.”
Jordan “wants to pray” for Mangione, but also has to be “considerate of the person who lost their life.”
“I knew him, I knew what he stood for. He didn’t have any controversial vibes,” Jordan said. “He didn’t have those vibes, none of us did. It’s just a shock to all of us… There’s nothing more to say.”
Although a motive has not yet been definitively established, Mangione reportedly had serious back problems that caused him debilitating pain and also interfered with his love life.
RJ Martin, who owns a shared living space in Honolulu where Mangione stayed for about six months, said the Maryland native moved to Hawaii to recuperate before scheduled back surgery in 2023. Martin said Mangione showed him X-rays of his back, which was “disgusting looking, with nothing but huge screws going into his spine.”
“His spine was kind of misaligned,” Martin said The New York Times. “He said his lower vertebrae were almost half an inch, and I think he pinched a nerve. Sometimes he would do well and other times not.”
After Mangione’s surgery, he fell out of touch with friends and family, according to multiple sources. Aaron Cranston, who went to Gilman with Jordan and Mangione, said The Times that Mangione’s relatives reached out to him and others after the procedure because no one had heard from him for months.
Mangione’s parents, sister and cousin, Nino Mangione — a Republican state legislator — did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
On Tuesday, Nino canceled a political appearance to be held at Hayfields, a Baltimore County country club founded by his grandparents and now run by his uncle, Luigi Mangione’s father.
“Due to the nature of this horrific situation involving my cousin, I do not believe it is appropriate to hold my fundraising event scheduled for this Thursday at Hayfields,” he wrote on Facebook. “I will postpone this event to a later time at a more convenient time… I want to thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support. My family and I are heartbroken and ask that you remember Mr. Thompson’s family in your prayers.”