A 911 name a couple of man resembling “the CEO shooter.” Physique-camera footage of police arresting Luigi Mangione and pulling objects from his backpack, together with a gun that prosecutors say matches the one used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and a notebook they’ve described as a “manifesto.” Notes a couple of “survival equipment” and “intel checkin,” and testimony about alleged statements behind bars.
A 3-week pretrial listening to on Mangione’s combat to exclude proof from his New York murder case ended Thursday after revealing new particulars about his December 2024 arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, steps prosecutors say he took to elude authorities for 5 days, and what he could have revealed about himself after he was taken into custody.
Mangione watched from the protection desk as Manhattan prosecutors known as 17 witnesses, lots of them law enforcement officials and different personnel concerned in his arrest. Mangione’s attorneys known as none. Decide Gregory Carro mentioned he received’t rule till Might 18, “however that might change.”
Mangione, 27, an Ivy League graduate from a rich Maryland household, has pleaded not responsible to state and federal homicide fees. The pretrial listening to was within the state case, however his attorneys are attempting to exclude proof from each. Neither trial has been scheduled.
Listed here are among the issues we discovered from the listening to:
Physique cameras give a close-up have a look at Mangione’s arrest
The general public acquired an in depth, even exhaustive view of how police in Altoona, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, performed Mangione’s arrest and searched his backpack after he was noticed consuming breakfast at McDonald’s.
Whereas there have been quirky moments and asides — about vacation music, a hoagie and extra — the purpose of the listening to was to assist the choose assess whether or not Mangione voluntarily spoke to police and whether or not the officers had been justified in looking out his property earlier than getting a warrant.
For the primary time, body-worn digital camera video of Mangione’s arrest was performed in court docket and a few excerpts had been made public. Taken from a number of officers’ cameras, the footage put ears and eyes on important interactions that performed out in opposition to the incongruously cheerful sound of “Jingle Bell Rock” and different Christmas tunes on the restaurant’s sound system.
Officers on the witness stand had been quizzed about what they mentioned and did as Mangione went from noshing on a hash brown to being led away in handcuffs, in addition to what they perceived, the place they had been standing and the way they dealt with proof after bringing him to a police station.
Mangione’s attorneys argue that neither the outcomes of the search nor statements he made to police ought to be talked about at his trial. Prosecutors disagree. Carro didn’t trace at his conclusion. He invited either side to submit written arguments and mentioned he deliberate to check the body-camera video earlier than issuing a call.
Differing views of Mangione’s statements and bag search
Mangione’s attorneys famous that one officer mentioned “we’ll most likely want a search warrant” for the backpack, however his colleagues had already rifled by way of it and later searched the bag once more earlier than getting a warrant.
Prosecutors emphasised an Altoona police coverage, which they mentioned is rooted in Pennsylvania regulation, that requires looking out the property of anybody who’s being arrested.
The 2 sides additionally amplified some contrasting alerts, in officers’ phrases and actions, about their degree of concern about whether or not the backpack contained one thing harmful that might justify a warrantless search.
The officer looking out the bag, Christy Wasser, testified that she was checking for a bomb. However Mangione’s attorneys identified that police didn’t clear the restaurant of consumers — some even walked to a toilet a number of toes away — and that Wasser stopped her preliminary search virtually instantly after discovering a loaded gun journal wrapped in a pair of underwear.
The discover appeared to verify officers’ suspicions that Mangione was the person needed for Thompson’s killing.
“It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,” Officer Stephen Fox mentioned on video, punctuating the comment with expletives as Wasser held up the journal.
What occurred earlier than Mangione was learn his rights
Mangione’s statements to police previous to his arrest matter primarily as a result of, as proven on body-worn digital camera video, he initially gave officers a pretend identify, Mark Rosario. He finally acknowledged the ruse and gave his actual identify after police checked his phony New Jersey driver’s license in opposition to a pc database.
The pretend identify promptly gave Altoona police a purpose to arrest him and maintain him for New York Metropolis police. “If he had supplied us along with his precise identify, he wouldn’t have dedicated a criminal offense,” Fox testified. An NYPD lieutenant testified that the Rosario identify matched one the suspected shooter used to buy a bus ticket to New York and gave at a Manhattan hostel.
Mangione instructed police early on he didn’t need to speak, however officers engaged him for nearly 20 minutes earlier than getting him to confess to mendacity about his identify. After that, a supervisor urged Fox to tell Mangione of his proper to stay silent.
An necessary think about whether or not suspects must be learn these rights — generally known as a Miranda warning — is whether or not they’re in police custody.
Prosecutors elicited testimony from officers suggesting Mangione may have believed he was free to depart when he gave the false identify. However one of many first officers to come across Mangione testified that he “was not free to depart till I recognized who he was,” although Mangione wasn’t instructed so. Protection attorneys additionally underscored that physique digital camera video confirmed a number of officers standing between him and the restaurant door.
911 caller: Clients involved ‘he seems just like the CEO shooter’
For the primary time, the general public heard the 911 name that drew police to the Altoona McDonald’s.
“I’ve a buyer right here that another clients had been suspicious of that he seems just like the CEO shooter from New York,” the restaurant’s supervisor instructed a dispatcher.
Nonetheless, the supervisor, whose identify wasn’t launched, initially instructed the dispatcher: “It’s probably not an emergency.”
The supervisor mentioned Mangione was carrying a medical masks and a beanie pulled down on his brow, leaving solely his eyes and eyebrows seen. She mentioned she searched on-line for a photograph of the suspect for comparability.
A hoagie reward and getting ‘the ball rolling’ with the NYPD
At first, Altoona law enforcement officials had been skeptical that Thompson’s killer could be of their metropolis of about 44,000 folks.
Joseph Detwiler, the primary officer to reach at McDonald’s, sarcastically responded “10-4” when a dispatcher requested him to verify on the supervisor’s 911 name, a police supervisor testified.
The supervisor, Lt. Tom Hanelly Jr., testified that he texted Detwiler a reminder to take the decision significantly and provided to purchase the officer his favourite hoagie — a big turkey from native sandwich store Luigetta’s — if he nabbed “the New York Metropolis shooter.”
Although, Hanelly acknowledged on the witness stand, “it appeared preposterous on its face.”
Hanelly mentioned he looked for a direct line “to get the ball rolling” with NYPD investigators however ended up calling New York Metropolis’s 911 middle.
“We’re appearing off a tip from an area enterprise right here. We would have the shooter,” Hanelly mentioned in a recording performed in court docket.
Hanelly mentioned an NYPD detective known as him again about 45 minutes later.
Mangione in court docket: Pumping his fist and scribbling notes
Mangione stayed energetic all through the listening to, taking notes, studying paperwork, conferring along with his attorneys and infrequently wanting again towards his two dozen or so supporters within the courtroom gallery.
He watched intently as prosecutors performed a surveillance video of the killing and seen footage of his interactions with Altoona police. He pressed a finger to his lips and a thumb to his chin as he watched footage of two law enforcement officials approaching him on the McDonald’s.
He gripped a pen in his proper hand, making a fist at occasions, as prosecutors performed the 911 name.
Mangione was delivered to court docket every morning from a federal jail in Brooklyn, carrying grey or darkish blue fits as a substitute of jail garb. His arms had been uncuffed all through the proceedings.
Someday, he pumped his fist for photographers. One other day, he shooed away a photographer he felt had gotten too near him.
A backpack stuffed with ‘goodies,’ together with to-do lists and journey plans
Together with the gun and pocket book, law enforcement officials mentioned Mangione’s backpack was full of meals, electronics and notes together with to-do lists, a hand-drawn map and techniques for surviving on the lam — objects Altoona Police Sgt. Eric Heuston described as “goodies” which may hyperlink the suspect to the killing.
“Hold momentum, FBI slower in a single day,” mentioned one word. “Change hat, footwear, pluck eyebrows,” mentioned one other.
One word mentioned to verify for “pink eyes” from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio, or Cincinnati (“get off early,” it reads). The map confirmed strains linking these cities and famous different doable locations, together with Detroit and St. Louis.
Different objects discovered on Mangione or in his bag included a pocketknife, driver’s license, passport, bank cards, AirPods, a protein bar, journey toothpaste and flash drives, police mentioned.
Heuston testified that he learn parts of the pocket book to NYPD detectives by cellphone and urged that the finds “made it extra doubtless than not that he was the shooter.”
Mangione talked behind bars, jail officers say
Earlier than he was moved to New York Metropolis, Mangione was held beneath shut watch in a Pennsylvania state jail.
Correctional officer Matthew Henry testified that Mangione volunteered that he had a backpack with a 3D-printed pistol and overseas foreign money when he was arrested.
Correctional officer Tomas Rivers testified that Mangione requested him whether or not the information media was targeted on him as an individual or on the crime of Thompson’s killing. He mentioned Mangione expressed that he needed to make a public assertion.
Rivers mentioned Mangione additionally talked about his travels to Asia, together with witnessing a gang combat in Thailand, and mentioned variations between personal and nationalized well being care.
Rivers mentioned Mangione was beneath particular supervision partly as a result of the jail superintendent had mentioned he “didn’t need an Epstein-style scenario,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a Manhattan federal jail in 2019.
—Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz, Related Press
