legrandangle-lgm

Family and friends then reacted in shock and disbelief Luigi Mangionea 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, was identified as the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione was taken into custody Monday at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania following a days-long manhunt after a person at the establishment believed he resembled the suspect wanted in the fatal shooting of Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel last week. He has been ever since indicted in New York with second-degree murder, which police say is a targeted, premeditated attack.

“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement. “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 statement added.

The Gilman School, a private school in Baltimore where Mangione graduated as valedictorian in 2016, said his “suspected involvement in this case is deeply disturbing news, on top of an already terrible situation.”

“Our thoughts go out to all those affected. Here on campus, our focus will continue to be on caring for and educating our students,” the statement continued.

A classmate who graduated from Gilman with Mangione told ABC News that Mangione is “the last person I would have expected to be involved in something like that.”

“He always came across as a very good kid, very nice, very humble, open to talk to anyone,” the classmate said. “Really not a problematic kid in high school. He never really got into trouble, wasn’t looking for attention or anything like that. Just a smart kid with a bright future, I kind of thought.”

Mangione went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. It was “expected to go down a typical path,” the classmate said.

“So when we heard all this, it was a huge shock to us, and honestly, to our entire community,” the classmate said.

About six months ago, the classmate said he heard from other classmates that Mangione’s family was “inquiring about his whereabouts.”

“I heard he had surgery on his back, so we were all a little worried and a lot of people contacted him. No response,” the classmate said. “I didn’t hear anything about him until today, when all the news dropped.”

“A huge shock, definitely,” they added.

Mangione’s last known address was in Honolulu, police said. RJ Martin, the founder of a co-living space for remote workers in Honolulu who said he was Mangione’s roommate there, said he was “extremely shocked” by the news.

“It’s unimaginable,” Martin told the Honolulu ABC affiliate KITV.

“I never talked about guns, never about violence,” Martin told the channel. “He was definitely a non-violent person, as far as I could tell.”

Martin also recalled that Mangione suffered a back injury after a surfing lesson and required surgery.

He said they would talk about issues like health care, housing and food systems, but “it wasn’t anything specific.”

“It wasn’t like he had an ax to grind,” he said.

When Mangione was arrested Monday, he had “written confessions of the crime” with him, according to the New York arrest warrant.

The suspect was carrying several handwritten pages that appeared to express a “disdain for corporate America” ​​and indicate that “he is frustrated with the health care system in the United States,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny told ABC News “Good Morning America.” “on Tuesday.

Mangione viewed Thompson’s killing as a “symbolic takedown” of UnitedHealthcare over alleged corruption, according to a confidential review of the crime by the NYPD Intelligence Bureau described to ABC News. The assessment is partly based on the suspect’s writings.

It is not known whether Mangione has a personal connection to UnitedHealthcare, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

In addition to murder, Mangione was charged in New York with possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon.

He was also charged with carrying a firearm without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to authorities and possessing “instruments of crime” in Pennsylvania, where he remains in custody. challenging extradition to New York.

Attorney Thomas Dickey, who was retained by Mangione in the Pennsylvania case, said his client refuses to waive extradition because it is his constitutional right to do so.

“He has constitutional rights and that’s what he’s doing,” Dickey said. “If you believe in America and that presumption of innocence, you cannot rush to judgment.”

Dickey said he has limited information about the facts of the New York murder case, but he conceded that Mangione has been “accused of a number of serious things.” He added that Mangione is “taking it the best he can.”

Aaron Katersky, Peter Charalambous and Sabina Ghebremedhin of ABC News contributed to this report.