The team behind a popular video game has responded to news that Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with murder following the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was a member of an Ivy League group of gamers who frequently played their game.
Mangione frequently played the popular game Among Us with friends and other gamers. In the game, players are either tasked with chores or secretly assigned assassins, with the goal of killing other players without getting caught.
News of Mangione's relationship to the game made headlines, eventually reaching the team behind the game. They then took to their social media to respond with a single word.
"Um," they wrote.
Members of the same Ivy League gamer group Mangione was part of have said that they did not see this coming, reported NBC News.
"I just found it extremely ironic that, you know, we were in this game and there could actually be a true killer among us," Alejandro Romero, who attended the University of Pennsylvania with Mangione and was also part of the Discord gamer group, told NBC News.
"As soon as his photo and name popped up on X, my friend texted me asking if I knew him, and then either I was calling some 10 friends or they were calling me," Romero added. "I didn't speak to anybody today who wasn't already aware of what had happened."
In the game "Among Us", the players who are assigned assassins must win by secretly killing their teammates in such a way that precludes other teammates from realizing who the killer is.
On Monday, the 26-year-old was arrested at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania. A firearm, fake IDs and a passport were found on his person alongside a document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters, according to CBS News.
Originally published by Latin Times.