A University of Pennsylvania professor made some of his social media accounts private and deleted his TikTok account after it went viral for celebrating the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Graduated from an Ivy League school.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting the former insurance executive on a New York City sidewalk last week. He was taken into custody on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
He is wanted in New York on charges including murder in the second degree, Criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
Since Thompson’s murder last week, social media… filled with posts Celebrating or mocking Thompson’s murder as justified, as people feel anger over having their health insurance claims denied.
After Mangione was detained as a person of interest on Monday, UPenn professor Julia Alexeyeva appeared to share several social media posts praising the murder suspect.
In one TikTok, Alexeyeva, who posts under the name “The Soviet,” asks “Do you hear the people sing?” She smiles while playing the song. From the famous musical Les Miserables.
The text on the screen read, “I have never been more proud to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” she wrote, replacing the “e” in Pennsylvania with the number 3.
Alexeyeva is an assistant professor of English and Cinema and Media Studies at the university and identifies herself as “a socialist and staunch anti-fascist.” his website,
The post gained traction after it was reposted on X by popular TikTok account libz and UPenn graduate Eyal Yacoby.
“Disgusting,” Yacoby wrote in response. “UPenn Professor Julia Alexeyeva celebrated the alleged murderer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and said the killer attended UPenn. For anyone wondering how America’s youth become so radicalized as to murder someone, it’s because of extremist professors.
Yacoby also shared a purported screenshot from Alexeyeva’s Instagram Stories, where she called Mangione “the icon we all need and deserve” in response to a magazine article purporting to know the sexuality of a murder suspect.
Yacoby also claimed that the professor had a history of left-wing activism on campus.
Since her post was shared by others on
The University of Pennsylvania and Alexeyeva did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Other professors have also faced criticism for mocking Thompson’s murder.
“Today, we mourn the shooting death of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare…. Wait, I’m sorry – today we mourn the deaths of 68,000 Americans who die unnecessarily every year so that insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can become millionaires,” Anthony Zenks, Columbia University School of Social Work A Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Posted on 4th December, X.
Zenkas’ post received over 7 million views and prompted a flood of comments criticizing him. In response to these comments, the professor clarified that he was not justifying the murder.
He wrote in a letter, “It is never right to brutally kill someone in broad daylight.” Follow-up post on December 6th. “The best we can do is kill them by denying or delaying their claim for life-saving medical treatment so that their families can watch them die slowly and in severe and unbearable pain.”
This professor certainly wasn’t the only person to express these sentiments on social media.
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz shared several posts that at least attempted to explain the killing, while suggesting that other health insurance executives may also have been targeted.
Hours after news of Thompson’s death broke, Lorenz wrote on the social media site Bluesky, “And people wonder why we want these officers to die,” accompanying a report about Blue Cross Blue Shield now reporting that Anesthesia is not covered for the entire length of some surgeries. After facing opposition, the insurance company has reversed its stance on this proposed policy change.
Lorenz has been repeatedly grieving since then, even appearing to tell TV host Piers Morgan that she felt “joy” over Thompson’s murder.
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