The family of Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, said they were “devastated” by his arrest – as it emerged that the 26-year-old was involved Suspected shooter was unwell after “traumatic” back surgery.

“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said in a statement shared late Monday by his cousin Nino Mangione, a Republican delegate from Baltimore County.

“We are praying for Brian Thompson’s family and asking people to pray for everyone involved. We are devastated by this news,” the Mangione family said.

The relatives added that they “cannot comment on news reports” about the accused killer, who was arrested Monday morning at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania after a frantic, five-day manhunt.

“We only know what we read in the media,” the family said.

Luigi Mangione was reported to police by an Altoona McDonald’s employee who recognized the suspected shooter from photos released by the New York Police Department.

According to a criminal complaint, local police officers approached him while he was eating at the restaurant and said he “started shaking” when they asked him if he had been in New York recently.

He gave them a fake New Jersey ID – presumably the same one he used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the murder – and was taken into custody.

Police discovered on him a ghost pistol with a silencer and other items that sources said were “consistent with what police were looking for,” including a rambling, handwritten manifesto that said: “These parasites had it on it.”

“I apologize for any traumatic confrontation, but it had to be done,” he wrote.

University of Pennsylvania graduate Luigi Mangione comes from a wealthy real estate family well-known in their Maryland community.

He grew up outside of Baltimore in Towson, and his family owns two sprawling country clubs, a local radio station and several other real estate holdings.

In the weeks before the shooting, law enforcement said he became estranged from his friends and family.

Mangione’s mother reported him missing on November 18 – possibly from a home in San Francisco where he lived for a time – and reached out to his peers to try to track him down.

One of his former classmates at Gilman School in Baltimore told the New York Times that he thought he had gone dark after back surgery a few months earlier.

A friend and former roommate in Hawaii also told CNN that Mangione had previously discussed his back problems.

“When I first interviewed him before he moved in, I remember him saying he had a back problem and was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii,” RJ Martin said.

The roommate said Mangione’s back problems were so “traumatic and difficult” that a simple surfing lesson left him bedridden for a week.

When he had surgery, Martin said, his friend sent him X-rays.

“It looked hideous, with just huge screws in its spine,” he said.

Other former high school friends said the high-achieving valedictorian went “completely crazy” after the surgery, according to Jack Mac, a contributor to sports and pop culture outlet Barstool Sports.

“I spoke to a source who had a lot of friends who went to high school with Luigi Mangione. What keeps coming up is back surgery that “changed everything” for him and left him “absolutely crazy,” Mac revealed on X.

Mangione has “made no statements” since his arrest, law enforcement officials said during an evening news conference in Pennsylvania.

Hours after he was charged with weapons and forgery in Pennsylvania, he was charged with murder in New York.

Thompson, 50, was shot last Wednesday as he walked alone and without security to a Hilton hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference.