Police bodycam footage of Luigi Mangione’s arrest released
NEW YORK (AP) — Police bodycam footage released Friday shows the moment officers located and arrested Luigi Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s in connection with the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
In one video, officers ask Mangione to lower the face mask he was wearing to hide his identity.
“That’s 100% him,” one officer says eagerly as they step outside to speak out of Mangione’s earshot.
“I told you, man,” another responds off camera.
Later, an officer searches Mangione’s belongings and smiles widely as she pulls out a gun cartridge, seemingly confirming they’d found their suspect.
The trove of videos comes from Mangione’s Dec. 9, 2024, arrest in Altoona, five days after Thompson, a 50-year-old Minnesota executive, was gunned down as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
A Manhattan judge unsealed the recordings Friday after CNN petitioned for their release. Parts of the videos were shown during a December court hearing as Mangione’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to get key evidence thrown out, including his initial statements to police and items seized at the time of his arrest.
Mangione pleaded guilty in August to federal stalking charges and faces life in prison when he's sentenced in December. He also faces murder charges in New York state court, though those proceedings have been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out.
The videos released Friday begin as officers descend on the McDonald’s in central Pennsylvania, nearly 300 miles (483 kilometers) from Manhattan.
They find Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, seated at a table wearing a ski hat, surgical face mask and winter coat. The officers say they're responding to a call about a suspicious person and ask for his name and identification.
“You’re a little nervous right now. Why are you nervous?” an officer asks at one point.
They order him to put his hands on his head and ask him if he’s been in New York recently. They confront him about a phony New Jersey driver’s license he offers up bearing the name Mark Rosario.
“You’re under official police investigation right now,” one officer warns. “You give a false name to us again, you’re gonna be arrested for false ID.”
When Mangione finally comes clean, they ask why he had lied.
“I clearly shouldn’t have,” he responds as he’s asked to write his real name and spell it aloud.
Other videos show officers patting Mangione down, reading him his rights, placing him in cuffs and taking him to the police station.
As an officer searches him more thoroughly at the station, another officer goes through his backpack.
The officer finds the 9 mm handgun authorities would later confirm was used in the killing, as well as a silencer and another ammo magazine. They also recover the journal that prosecutors would later say revealed Mangione’s intent to “wack” a health insurance executive, as well as his other handwritten notes.
“He has a checklist for today,” another officer says, ticking off the seized items to someone on the phone. “Tomorrow he’s supposed to do an intel check-in and get a survival kit.”
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