Body camera video shown in court Tuesday documented how police approached, arrested and searched Luigi Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s — moments that underlie key questions about what evidence will and won’t be allowed at his eventual state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The footage taken five days after Thompson was gunned down on a New York City sidewalk captured the roughly 20 minutes between officers approaching Mangione at the restaurant and telling him he had the right to remain silent. During that time, they asked his name, whether he’d been in New York recently and other questions, including: “Why are you nervous?”
The Altoona, Pennsylvania, officers believed as soon as they saw his face that he was indeed the much-publicized suspect in Thompson’s killing, and quickly realized he’d given a fake name and phony New Jersey driver’s license, Officer Joseph Detwiler testified. But police suggested they were simply responding to loitering concerns at the eatery, they made conversation about his steak sandwich, and Detwiler even whistled a tune.
“Just trying to keep things normal and calm, make him think that nothing was different about this call than any other call,” Detwiler explained in court.
But however casual the tone at times, officers also patted Mangione down and pushed his backpack away from him — out of “a safety concern» about what might be in it and what he might do, according to Detwiler.
After about 15 minutes, with a half-dozen or so officers in the restaurant, Detwiler warned Mangione that he was being investigated, was believed to have given a false name and could be arrested if he repeated it. Mangione then disclosed his true identity. Officers asked why he had lied.
“I clearly shouldn’t have,” he responded. He then explained that ”that was the ID I had in my wallet.»
Minutes later, an officer read Mangione his rights, while adding that he was “not in custody at this point.” Although Mangione was frisked again and then handcuffed, Detwiler testified that police at that point had decided to “detain” him for investigation, but that he wasn’t arrested until a few minutes later, on charges of providing false identification.
Defense wants certain evidence excluded
The video and testimony came as lawyers for Mangione, 27, seek to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his Manhattan trial about the statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.
The defense contends that the statements should be suppressed because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent. Mangione’s attorneys argue the backpack items should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching Mangione’s bag.
The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.
In Mangione’s case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were “exigent circumstances” that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.
Detwiler testified that he neither told Mangione he couldn’t leave nor mentioned the New York shooting. Defense lawyers, however, have argued in court filings that officers “strategically” stood in a way that prevented him from leaving.
A key hearing
Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled.
Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing pertains only to the state case.
Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.
Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Prosecutors say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims.
Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school.
