It’s been over a week since Luigi Mangione shot and killed Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care, shocking Americans across the country. Temple Update’s Kamil Rozanski spoke with Penn and Temple students to hear what they have to say about the man behind murder.
“I feel like people are definitely making light of a heavy situation, your opinion on CEOs and corporations, that is your own but there is a murder that happened,” said Evenly Liacoalugh, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.
Since the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the general public’s interest in the shooting of Brian Thompson has grown a large following both online and in person.
Nina Perez, a freshman student at Penn, says they are unhappy with the media attention Mangione is receiving.
“I don’t totally agree with it, the platform we give to people who have committed crimes, isn’t always a positive.”
Close to the Owl’s Nest, Mangione studied nearby in University City, graduating from the Ivy League school in 2020.
While at Penn, Mangione studied Engineering and was a fraternity brother in Phi Kappas Psi. Current students say they feel shocked.
“Can we ever get a Penn alumni that has done anything good?” said freshman UPenn student Ivan Boyko.
Other students say they are not surprised and that it is not the first time a Penn alum has caught national attention.
“It’s like another alumni that has gotten themselves into the news and definitely doesn’t look great,” says Ellie McDonough, a Penn freshman.
Students from both Temple and Penn say that social media has had a negative influence on the case.
“An attractive person is going to get more press, and it’s been kind of an issue with social media kind of romanticizing people who commit violent crimes,” said McDonough.
“It reminds me of Ted Bundy and how he was so attractive and just how he gets off cause he’s young, attractive, and white, that’s kind of annoying why are we not focusing on the main thing that he killed someone,” said Kennedy Brown, a senior at Temple University.
The two student bodies say they understand the motives Mangione might have had, but that he went too far.
“It’s the CEO of a major corporation, he probably wasn’t a good guy but I don’t know, I don’t think any killing is justified,” says Brown.
“If they are committing crimes or fraud against the people that rely on them, it’s important that it gets out there, but obviously I don’t condone violence,” says McDonough.
Some Penn students think the university has received a lot of attention in the media.
“It’s fascinating to be in the center of the action and to be part of this and have things like this where Penn is in the center of the news,” says Liacoalugh.
For now, with Pennsylvania at the center of a national story, students are now itching to see how this case plays out in court.
Be the first to comment