Shooting reactions concern students

Religious leaders encourage moral levelheadedness in Mangione case

In the wake of Luigi Mangione's arrest at the Plank Road McDonald's on Monday morning, a number of online commenters expressed support for his alleged shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, alarming some Blair County residents.

Students at Penn State Altoona felt a mixture of apprehension and fear as media scrutiny on the case -- and Altoona as a whole -- increased through the week.

According to first-year kinesiology major Samantha Robinson, she felt surprised when Mangione was apprehended in Altoona after nearly a week on the run from law enforcement.

"I live like 10 minutes outside New York (City), so finding out he got arrested here seemed like a crazy coincidence, because you don't feel like something like that is going to happen here," Robinson said.

Altoona is a "middle of nowhere" place, so it is rarely the backdrop for national news stories like this, she said.

Kara Dietz, a freshman nursing major from Altoona, said that she does not follow the news closely, so she "didn't know what to think" when the story first broke.

"Obviously, killing someone over an insurance issue is not the way to go," Robinson said. "I just think it was wrong."

While the initial shooting was scary, it became "terrifying" when Mangione was arrested in Altoona, according to first-year student Abigail Morgan.

"I didn't think it would affect us because it was so far (away)," Morgan said.

Morgan said that she had relatives from her hometown of Orrville, Ohio, calling her throughout the week after the arrest on Monday.

"I was scared, definitely anxious, it was the week before finals so my mind was somewhere else," Morgan said. "It threw me for a loop."

Mangione's arrest being mere miles from campus left Morgan afraid for her safety, she said.

Scores of people have taken to Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, in the days following the shooting to debate whether the victim's job as CEO of a health care company gave Mangione a degree of justification for his actions, particularly UnitedHealthcare's rate of insurance claim denial.

"I don't think that should have led to his actions -- if you're in charge of a big corporation, you're going to upset some people and let out some beliefs, opinions and views that other people don't agree with," Morgan said.

According to Morgan, health care, like every other sector in the American economy, is driven by the demands of the market and cannot hope to make everyone happy with their actions.

"Overall, they're just in a bad position, having to charge people a certain amount to cover a certain amount of things," she said.

Caco Aguilar, a sophomore hospitality management student at Penn State Altoona, said he is unsure if the current narrative of Mangione's actions and motivation tells the whole story.

"He may have had help, influence or funding," Aguilar said. "It's very hard (to think) that a young, successful guy he is portrayed to be, that he's going to risk it all."

Aguilar said he suspects that one potential motivation for Mangione's actions was "vengeance."

"(Killing Thompson) wasn't justified. It was a powerful (motivator), but not reasonable," Aguilar said. "But I can see where he is coming from."

According to Aguilar, the high cost of health care is "amazing" when compared to his home of El Salvador, which may be driven by an excessive profit motive within the health care industry.

"He did what he thought needed to be done, but there are many other ways to express his anger, his issues with the health care system," Aguilar said. "I think we need a reconstruction of health care in the U.S. to avoid casualties."

A religious perspective

Pastor Gary Dull of Faith Baptist Church of Altoona said that he's glad that people in Blair County recognize the harm wrought by Mangione, and contacted police when he was identified on Monday.

"I think anyone who is downplaying what Mangione has done has a major moral issue for society," Dull said.

The Bible teaches people to respect the rule of law, protect the innocent, judge the guilty and deal with those deemed guilty with the full force of the law, Dull said.

Quoting Romans 13:1-4, Dull said, "Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God."

This means that people should not be vigilantes who "take the law into their own hands," since the government and the law should have a duty to protect the innocent, he said.

"I am concerned about anyone in the city of Altoona who would be standing on the side of (Mangione). What he did was a crime and should be dealt with under the full extent of the law," Dull said.

According to Rabbi Audrey Korotkin of the Temple Beth Israel in Altoona, in the Jewish worldview, people are born with two competing inclinations called yetzer hatov and yetzer hara, which represent good and evil, respectively.

The perpetual challenge then, Korotkin said, is to balance these contradictory forces to live a moral life.

There can be "danger" if someone's yetzer hara outweighs their yetzer hatov, since they will be more inclined toward harmful actions, she said.

"(Mangione) didn't have his yetzer hatov going," Korotkin said.

According to Korotkin, everyone will face challenges in life, such as physical illness and debt, but the choices made in response to these challenges can either represent a decision toward yetzer hatov or yetzer hara.

Korotkin felt "scared" seeing posts online in support of Mangione's decision to kill Thompson.

"If you go with the way of (yetzer) hatov, you spread goodness to other people, which is the exact opposite of what (Mangione) did," Korotkin said. "He gave in to his inner demons that told him that this was an okay thing to do."

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7435.