Luigi Mangione Case: Bodycam Shows Pa. Police Confront Suspect in Health Care Exec Killing

By David Voreacos and Patricia Hurtado

Source Bloomberg News

NEW YORK — New York state prosecutors on Tuesday released a video excerpt of the first police encounter in December 2024 with Luigi Mangione, then the main suspect in the New York shooting of a health care executive five days earlier.

The video shows Joseph Detwiler, an officer in Altoona, Pennsylvania, questioning Mangione. A McDonald’s restaurant manager had called police to say he resembled the suspect wanted for the killing of UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, 2024.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have played that excerpt, and dozens of others, over the past week in a pre-trial hearing. Mangione’s lawyers have tried to suppress the evidence, arguing that police improperly questioned him before reading him his rights, and then illegally searched his backpack without a warrant.

In the backpack, authorities say they found the gun used to shoot Thompson, a silencer, a gun magazine, a passport, and a notebook with writings they say show that Mangione planned the killing.

Taken from a body camera worn by another officer, the 2:14-minute video excerpt shows Detwiler walking up to Mangione as he sat in the rear of the McDonald’s, wearing a blue mask, a tan cap and a black jacket.

“Do you mind lowering your mask?” Detwiler said to Mangione. “What’s your name?”

Mangione said his name was “Mark Rosario,” and Detwiler asked him for identification. He handed the officer a fake New Jersey driver’s license, which is visible in the video.

Mangione was charged in Pennsylvania with forgery, giving a false ID to police, and possessing a gun without a license. State and federal prosecutors in New York later charged him with murder. He pleaded not guilty.

Mangione’s lawyers had said that releasing the video would prejudice Mangione’s right to a fair trial. Judge Gregory Carro ruled last week that he would seal the videos until the trial started, when the media could apply for their release.

A coalition of media outlets, including Bloomberg News, moved last week to secure the release of the videos.

In response to a request for comment on the release of the footage, Mangione’s lawyers referred to a letter they sent to the judge earlier on Tuesday.

“Providing the body-worn camera footage to the media to be repeatedly played before Mr. Mangione’s state and federal trials creates a substantial probability that Mr. Mangione’s right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by potential jurors seeing this footage in the media,” the lawyers wrote.

With assistance from Anthony Aarons, Aleksander Solum and Katya Bohdan.

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