Luigi Mangione told classmates they need ‘incredible courage to try new things’ in valedictorian speech at $40k-a-year prep school

The 26-year-old former Ivy League student accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson told his classmates that it takes “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”

Luigi Mangione was the valedictorian of the Gilman School Class of 2016, whom he praised in his speech for his “inventive [and] pioneering mentality.’

“During our time here at Gilman, the class of 2016 has created new ideas and challenged the world around it,” he told his colleagues and their family members upon his graduation from the $40,000-a-year preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. .

He talked about how he and his classmates organized a Chick-Fil-A fundraiser and met before class to exercise.

“However, having great ideas is not enough to innovate,” Mangione said, noting that they also need “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”

He then thanked parents for sending them to the expensive all-boys school, telling Gilman teachers and faculty, “Our imagination draws on your inspiration and our courage depends largely on your encouragement in the classroom, on the field and on the workplace. phase.

“Just as we have done in recent years, we will explore the unknown, whether that’s attending colleges across the country, traveling the world on gap years [or] performing military service abroad,” Mangione concluded his speech.

“However, as we embrace the new, we will not forget the old: friendships, values ​​and memories of Gilman will remain with us forever.”

After graduating from the $40,000-a-year prep school in Baltimore, Maryland (pictured), Mangione attended the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.

Mangione attended the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, where he studied computer science and engineering. He worked for four years at a software company in Santa Monica, Californiacalled TrueCar.

The muscular suspect has ties to San Francisco and previously lived in Honolulu, Hawaii, police confirmed.

But the former valedictorian is now in custody on gun charges, with police saying he was carrying a “ghost gun” — believed to be made with a 3D printer — when he was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

Police say he is the prime suspect in the execution killing of 50-year-old Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in downtown Manhattan on December 4.

The doomed CEO arrived in town to host UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor meeting, where he would explain the insurance company’s massive profits for the year.

Harrowing CCTV footage showed Thompson being shot by three bullets at close range.

It later turned out that the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’ were written on the sleeves, an apparent attack on the practice of health insurance.

Police sources now say Mangione was angry about the way the health insurance industry treated a sick family member, police said New York Post.

Mangione has since been arrested as a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (pictured)

Surveillance camera footage showed Thompson was shot at close range by three bullets outside a Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on December 4.

No further details about that family member or their identity have been shared, although online obituaries show Mangione lost a grandmother in 2013 and a grandfather in 2017.

His X account also contains an X-ray of a complicated neck operation.

Mangione was also apparently a fan of the infamous “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, and referenced quotes from him about health and illness on his Goodreads page.

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy and then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness,” read an excerpt from a Kaczynski quote on Mangione’s Goodreads page.

“The concept of ‘mental health’ in our society is largely defined by the extent to which an individual behaves in accordance with the needs of the system and does so without showing signs of stress,” said another.

Mangione, pictured with a McDonald’s Happy Meal, was spotted at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Monday and subsequently taken into custody

He was in possession of a handgun, a silencer and a fraudulent New Jersey ID when he was arrested Monday afternoon, NYPD Chief Jessica Tisch confirmed.

She noted that the ID matched the one the suspected killer used to check into a New York hostel on Nov. 24.

Mangione was also found with a manifesto — purporting to show he was angry about the health care system and its profits — and had clothing that matched that of the gunman in the surveillance footage, Tisch alleged.

She then thanked the public for their help in tracking down the alleged killer, saying: “We should never underestimate the power of the public as our eyes and ears.”