Near the beginning of this month, on December 4, 2024, Brian Thompson was fatally shot three times outside the entrance of the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel in Manhattan, New York City. (CBS News)
After over a week of forensic investigations taking place, the ballistic evidence was eventually a major part of the main suspect being taken into custody — based on the shell casings of the bullets shot being matched to the gun that Luigi Mangione; a 26-year-old graduate from an Ivy League school, was found to be charged with shortly after his arrest.
The state in which Luigi Mangione was found when the authorities arrived at the scene where an employee of a local food chain had called in was seemingly unexpected for the main suspect of the murder of a high-ranking member of UnitedHealthcare. When authorities arrived, Luigi Mangione was spotted in a McDonald’s on a Monday in Pennsylvania, around 200 miles away from where the recent murder had occurred, and was soon after taken into custody by law enforcement officers.
When it comes to recent news, the opinions of Uni students tend to vary depending on personal bias, leading to an expectance of a range of previously known pieces of information and personal opinions on the chase for Luigi Mangione.
And so, the youthful students of Uni High were then subjected to interviews.
The first round of interviews conducted was solely based on the available freshmen.
Matias Garmendia, the first interviewee, in response to the questioning on if he had heard of the case, “I have heard about it — I have no idea about it, though.” When asked about what he had heard, he stated, “I have heard about the shooting — about people trying to chase him.”
Abdulrahman Abdel Ati, a freshman at Uni High, was asked the same variety of questions regarding the chase after Luigi Mangione. In response to the situation in itself, Abdul responded, “No.” — that he had not known about the news before the interview. After being given a brief explanation of the murder case, and then asked for his personal feelings about Brian Thompson’s murder, the answer given was, “I mean, it’s awful — it’s not good. I mean, someone was shot three times.”
Layla Zong, the final freshman of the first round who had been interviewed, was asked the same questions as the previous interviewees. Her response to the overall news of the murder was, “I think the whole thing is honestly kind of ironic and funny — obviously, it’s sad that he got shot, but I kind of lowkey understand why the killer did do what he did.” In regards to the previous pursuit of Luigi Mangione, Layla states, “I do think the whole pursuit is kind of funny, and the photo they released of him — and the way he got away on a bike — and didn’t they recently discover a backpack or something? The one that was found in Central Park?” After listing off the supposed additions to the investigation, “I do think that it’s a very fragile situation right now, because of his motive, but I’m interested to see where the pursuit goes.”
The next round of interviews was based on the question of whether or not other students of Uni held similar opinions to the first interviewees.
Mattox Pugh, the first freshman to be asked if he would like to be interviewed, stated, “I think I need to research it more.”
Krysantha Flores, the first freshman to be interviewed in the second round, held varying bouts of information regarding the incident. “He like — I saw it on Twitter (X, now). He shot this dude; the UnitedHealthcare CEO three times with a bullet, then he left on a bike — people identified him by using AI. I think on the bullets were, like, the words ‘defend, deny’. . . three d’s or whatever.” After a brief break consisting of joking with her classmates, she continued, “He apparently used a veterinarian gun — like, pig — the thing they used to kill pigs, I think?”
“Slay,” was heard from an anonymous source shortly after Krysantha stated this — with the interviewee continuing. “He was like — valedictorian of his high school.”