The best friend of Brian Thompson’s shooting suspect Luigi Mangione has broken her silence.
Tracy Le, a data analyst based in New York, said she was blindsided after Mangione was arrested and charged with the murder of Healthcare’s CEO.
In a lengthy tribute on Instagram obtained by The suncalled Mrs. Le Mangione her “dear” confidante.
In her post, Ms. Le wrote: “Luigi Mangione is probably the most Googled keyword today.
“When I first saw the news, I hoped it was a common name or a mistake.”
Meanwhile, a former roommate previously revealed that a debilitating back injury left Mangione unable to have sex.
The 26-year-old was arrested Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after he allegedly shot Mr. Thompson on the streets of Manhattan.
Mangione is now being held in solitary confinement before being extradited to New York City to face murder charges.
Luigi Mangione was arrested Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after he allegedly shot Mr. Thompson on the streets of Manhattan.
Tracy Le, a data analyst based in New York, said she was blindsided after Mangione was arrested and charged with the murder of Healthcare CEO
Mangione is now being held in solitary confinement pending his extradition back to New York City where he faces murder charges
Ms. Le goes on to call Mangione “one of my closest, closest and most trusted friends.”
She ended the heartfelt post by saying, “I’m shocked, I’m blindsided, but most of all, I’m sad.
‘I’m devastated. I’m overwhelmed.’
Her tribute comes after a man who lived with the murder suspect for six months in a co-living space in Hawaii claimed Mangione had a back injury so severe he could not have sex.
RJ Martin said Mangione had suffered after a back condition called spondylolisthesis was aggravated by a surfing accident.
Mr Martin said: ‘His spine was slightly misaligned. He said his lower vertebrae were almost half an inch away, and I think there was a pinched nerve.”
He added that Mangione suffered from the debilitating pain during his six-month stay at SurfBreak in 2022.
This also prevented him from dating or being physically intimate.
Mangione arrives at the Blair County Court House. Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of which was in foreign currency. Mangione disputed the amount when he was charged
Mangione, right, suffered a debilitating back injury that left him unable to have sex, a former roommate said
Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range on December 4
Mangione, an Ivy League-educated “anti-capitalist,” was taken into custody after a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, thought they recognized him as the gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on 4 December killed.
Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said in court that Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of which was in foreign currency. Mangione disputed the amount when he was charged.
He also had in his possession a three-page handwritten manifesto.
At a news conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione had a three-page handwritten document showing “ill will toward corporate America.”
A law enforcement official who was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said the document included a sentence in which Mangione claimed to have acted alone.
“I’ll keep it short for the FBI because I respect what you do for our country. To spare you a lengthy investigation, I clearly state that I have not collaborated with anyone,” the official said in the document.
It also included a sentence that said, “I apologize for any conflict or trauma, but it had to be done.” Honestly, these parasites just got it.”
At a news conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione had a three-page handwritten document showing “ill will toward corporate America.”
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At the murder scene, officers found bullets and shell casings with the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” scrawled on them. The words mimic a phrase used to criticize the insurance industry.
Mangione is a grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist and a nephew of a current Maryland state lawmaker. Mangione was valedictorian at his elite prep school in Baltimore, where in his 2016 graduation speech he praised his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.”
Mangione graduated at the top of his class from Baltimore’s elite Gilman School and even gave the commencement address at his graduation in 2016, according to video of the ceremony.
“He seemed like a smart kid, he always did the right thing, it seemed,” a former classmate, who was shocked by the arrest, told Fox News Digital, adding, “[He] wasn’t crazy.’
He then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, a spokesperson said.
“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement that his cousin, Maryland Assemblymember Nino Mangione, posted on social media late Monday. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and ask people to pray for everyone involved.”
Luigi Nicholas Mangione worked for the car purchasing website TrueCar for a while and left in 2023, CEO Jantoon Reigersman said by email.
Mangione with his family. Mangione is a grandson of a wealthy, self-made real estate developer and philanthropist and a nephew of a current Maryland state lawmaker. Mangione was valedictorian at his elite prep school in Baltimore
Mangione was spotted on a surveillance camera in a hostel in New York
From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space on the edge of Honolulu’s tourist mecca Waikiki.
Although the gunman obscured his face during the shooting, he left a trail of evidence around New York, including a backpack he dumped in Central Park, a cell phone found in a pedestrian plaza, a water bottle and a protein bar wrapper.
In the days following the shooting, the NYPD collected hundreds of hours of surveillance video and released multiple clips and still images in hopes of drawing the public’s attention to help find a suspect.
“This combination of old-fashioned detective work and new technology led to this result today,” Tisch said at the news conference in New York.