'Extremely ironic': Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying played video game killer, friend recalls

[ad_1] Luigi Mangione, who was arrested and charged with homicide within the capturing demise of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as soon as belonged to a bunch of Ivy League players who performed assassins, a member of the group instructed NBC Information.

Within the sport, known as "Amongst Us," some gamers are secretly assigned to be killers in area who carry out different duties whereas attempting to keep away from suspicion from different gamers.

Alejandro Romero, who attended the College of Pennsylvania with Mangione and was a member of the identical Discord group, mentioned he was shocked when information broke on social media that Mangione had been taken into police custody.

"I simply discovered it extraordinarily ironic that, you already know, we had been on this sport and there may truly be a real killer amongst us," he mentioned.

"As quickly as his photograph and identify popped up on X, my good friend texted me asking if I knew him, after which both I used to be calling some 10 buddies or they had been calling me," Romero added. "I did not converse to anyone immediately who wasn't already conscious of what had occurred."

Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday morning in a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an worker noticed him.

Luigi Mangione arrives for arraignment on the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pa., on Monday. NBC Information Police discovered a firearm, believed to have been 3D-printed, and a handwritten doc on Mangione "that speaks to each his motivation and mindset," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch mentioned at a information convention.

He was additionally carrying pretend identification and a passport, authorities mentioned.

In New York, Mangione was charged with homicide, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a solid instrument and felony possession of a weapon, in line with court docket paperwork.

Authorities in Pennsylvania charged Mangione with carrying firearms with out a license, forgery, tampering with information or identification, possessing devices of crime and offering false identification to police.

In a press release on X on Monday night time, a member of the Mangione household mentioned they're "shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."

"We provide our prayers to the household of Brian Thompson and we ask individuals to hope for all concerned," wrote Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland Home of Delegates.

Romero, who mentioned he has not spoken to or seen Mangione since 2020, described him as a typical school scholar who didn't stand out to him.

"He simply match a mould," Romero mentioned. "He simply appeared like some other regular frat dude that you possibly can see at a frat occasion."

His ultimate 12 months in school was reduce brief when the pandemic hit. College students had been pressured off campus of their final semester and didn't return for graduation.

The Discord group was one option to keep linked, Romero mentioned, however members started to go their separate methods as they received full-time jobs or launched into lengthy journeys.

Throughout a few of these years, Mangione left behind a digital footprint that included reviewing “Industrial Society and Its Future,” also called the “Unabomber Manifesto” by Ted Kaczynski, on Goodreads, a platform for guide critiques and suggestions. It served because the ideological reasoning for Kaczynski’s yearslong mail bomb marketing campaign that killed three individuals and injured 23 others.

Mangione grew to become considerably extra lively on X in 2021 after 5 years not posting or reposting content material, in line with a overview of his account.