Who is the suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?

Luigi Mangione, a scion of a prominent Maryland family who was at the top of his class at an elite private school before graduating from an Ivy League university, seemed to have everything going for him, according to his friends.

They were stunned by the arrest of the 26-year-old in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was fatally shot last week in New York City. Mangione will plead not guilty, his lawyer says.

According to a police bulletin seen by American media, Mangione was allegedly motivated by resentment toward what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies.

He had spent time in a surfing community in Hawaii, but left because of debilitating back pain, those who remember him say. However, it is unclear to what extent his own health problems influenced his view of the medical industry.

He was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and was allegedly in possession of a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs and cash.

Mangione also had a handwritten document that expressed “ill will” toward American companies and included passages such as “frankly, these parasites had it coming,” according to police.

Investigators say the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were written on bullet casings found at the scene of Thompson’s murder.

Law enforcement sources say this may be a reference to the “three Ds of insurance,” tactics used by companies to deny patients’ claims for payment.

Mangione comes from a prominent Baltimore-area family known for businesses that include country clubs, nursing homes and a radio station, according to local media.

The suspect’s paternal grandparents, Nicholas and Mary Mangione, were real estate developers who purchased Turf Valley Country Club in 1978 and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley in 1986.

Shortly after Mangione was charged, his cousin, Republican state legislator Nino Mangione, issued a statement saying the family was “shocked and devastated.”

“We offer our prayers to Brian Thompson’s family and ask people to pray for everyone involved,” the statement read.

Thomas Maronick, a defense lawyer who knows members of the family, told the BBC of his surprise at the charges.

“You wouldn’t think that someone with privilege or resources from a family known for doing so much for the community would do something like this,” he said.

Mangione attended the private all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore. He was valedictorian, an award usually given to the student with the highest academic achievements.

Speaking to the BBC’s American partner CBS News, one of his classmates said Mangione “had no enemies” and “was an excellent student for a reason.”

Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science, according to the school, and founded a video game development club.

A friend who attended an Ivy League university at the same time as Mangione described him as a “super normal” and “smart” person.

Mangione worked as a data engineer for TrueCar, a digital retail website for new and used cars, according to his social media profiles. A spokesperson for the company told the BBC that it had not worked there since 2023.

He also spent time at a co-living surf community in Hawaii called Surfbreak. Sarah Nehemiah, who knew him then, told CBS that he left because of his back injury, which had been made worse by surfing and hiking.

Friends told American media that he underwent back surgery. The background image of an X account believed to belong to Mr. Mangione shows an x-ray of a spine with hardware.

A former roommate, RJ Martin, told the BBC that while Mangione “never complained,” his back pain sometimes “prevented him” from doing “a lot of normal things,” like surfing or playing volleyball.

Martin, who eventually lost contact with Mangione, said he believed his former friend “would never have conceived of harming another person.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” he added.

A person matching his name and photo had an account on Goodreads, a user-generated book review site, where he read two books about back pain in 2022, one of them called Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry.

He also gave four stars to a text titled Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto.

Starting in 1978, Kaczynski carried out a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured dozens more, until he was arrested in 1996.

In his review, Mangione acknowledged that Kaczynski was a violent individual, but also described him as a political revolutionary.

According to local media reports, Mangione’s mother had reported him missing last month to San Francisco authorities, telling them she had not heard from her son since July.