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Luigi Mangione, who was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, once belonged to an Ivy League group of gamers who played assassins, members of the group told NBC News. Ta.
In the game, called “Among Us,” some players are secretly assigned as killers in space, completing other missions while avoiding suspicion from other players.
Alejandro Romero, who attended the University of Pennsylvania with Mangione and was a member of the same Discord group, said he was shocked when news broke on social media that Mangione had been taken into police custody.
“The great irony is that we were in this game and we actually thought there might be a real killer among us,” he said.
“As soon as his picture and name appeared on Either they called me,” Romero added. “Today I didn’t talk to anyone who didn’t already know what happened.”
Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday morning after being spotted by an employee at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference that police found what appears to be a 3D-printed firearm and handwritten documents about Mangione that “speak to both his motives and his thinking.”
Authorities said the man also had fake identification and a passport.
Mangione was charged in New York with murder, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and possession of a weapon, according to court documents.
Pennsylvania authorities charged Mangione with possession of a firearm without a license, forgery, falsifying records or identification, possession of instruments of crime, and providing false identification to police.
On Monday night, members of the Mangione family said in a statement published in X that they were “shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest.”
“We keep Brian Thompson’s family in our prayers and ask the public to pray for everyone involved,” Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates, wrote.
Romero, who has not spoken or met Mangione since 2020, described Mangione as a typical college student who doesn’t stand out.
“He just fits the mold,” Romero said. “He looked like a regular frat guy you’d see at a frat party.”
His final year at university was cut short due to the pandemic. Students were forced off campus during their final semester and did not return for graduation.
Romero said the Discord group was a way to stay connected, but as members took on full-time jobs or went on long trips, they went their separate ways.
During those years, Mr. Mangione left a digital footprint that included a review of Ted Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future,” also known as “The Unabomber Manifesto,” on Goodreads, a book review and recommendation platform. This became the ideological basis for Kaczynski’s long-running mail bomb campaign, which killed three people and injured 23 others.
After five years of not posting or reposting content, Mangione saw a significant increase in activity on X in 2021, according to a review of his account.
Asked about the changes in Mangione’s online persona, Romero said the question has been circulating among his friend group.
“I feel like people aren’t sure how to label him,” he says. “Personally, I have a hard time understanding how this applies.”
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
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