Police officer testifies about recognizing Luigi Mangione at McDonald’s

One of the Pennsylvania police officers who arrested assassination suspect Luigi Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona last year took the witness stand at an evidence suppression hearing Tuesday morning and described the moment he realized the suspicious person eating breakfast in a corner might be a suspected killer.

Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler testified that he did not expect to find the suspected assassin when he went to respond to the call. But once he got there, Mangione said he immediately took off his mask and believed he was looking at a wanted man.

Detwiler said he never asked Mangione whether he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. She testified that Mangione asked her name, identification, whether she had been to New York recently, where she was from and whether she was from Altoona.

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He said he never told Mangione that he had been arrested, that he prevented Mangione from leaving, and that he never mentioned the shooting in New York City.

He said he was suspicious and moved Mangione’s bag away from him because he feared it might contain a gun.

Police later claimed to have found the suspected murder weapon in the bag.

Mangione is accused of shooting Thompson in the back outside a Manhattan hotel last year.

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This 2017 file photo of Brian Thompson was published via Businesswire when he was named chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Unit in 2017. (Business connection)

Police took diaries and other writings from Mangione’s backpack. They also obtained a fake New Jersey ID named “Mark Rosario” and recovered the alleged murder weapon and 3D-printed silencer.

Mangione’s defense argued that the unauthorized search of his belongings was unlawful and therefore the evidence should be destroyed. Prosecutors countered that police were doing their job within the law and were justified in searching without requiring a warrant.

The defense also wants some of Mangione’s statements suppressed.

Luigi Mangione was sitting at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, when police arrived to check a tipster’s report after someone recognized him from a wanted poster. (Southern District of New York)

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First, he allegedly gave the police a false name; It was the name that appeared on a fake identification document in New Jersey that police said showed Thompson into a Manhattan rooming house days before his assassination.

He also allegedly said something about having a 3D printed gun while in custody. Hearing this statement, the Pennsylvania prison guard stated that the accused assassin had brought up the issue on his own.