Luigi Mangione seemed “nervous” and claimed he was homeless when a Pennsylvania police officer confronted him inside a McDonald’s restaurant last December, the law enforcement officer testified during a pretrial hearing Tuesday.
The tense encounter ultimately led to Mangione’s arrest, capping off a five-day national manhunt. Mangione, 27, pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Altoona Police Officer Joseph Detwiler took the witness stand Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court as part of a complex hearing focused on Mangione’s lawyers’ bid to exclude evidence from his state murder trial. The proceedings could last at least a week.
Detwiler told the court that he was the first officer to arrive at the McDonald’s on Dec. 9, 2024. He walked up to a table where Mangione was eating. “I knew it was him immediately,” after Mangione removed the blue medical mask he had been wearing, Detwiler testified.
“He’s real nervous and not talking too much,” Detwiler said, referring to Mangione’s demeanor at the time. “I saw his fingers shaking a little bit.”
Detwiler said he asked Mangione whether he was visiting family. Mangione replied that he was “homeless.” Detwiler then asked Mangione whether he had recently been in New York. Mangione claimed that he had not.
In body camera footage played in court Tuesday, Detwiler can be heard whistling the Christmas tune “Jingle Bell Rock” while Mangione eats hash browns.
“I was trying to keep things normal and calm, to make him think there is nothing different about this call than any other call,” Detwiler said.
Detwiler testified that Mangione originally handed over a fake New Jersey identification card with the name “Mark Rosario.”
But when Detwiler later threatened him with arrest, Mangione came clean, confirming his real name.
Detwiler told the court that Mangione had a knife in his pocket “the whole time,” concealed by at least three layers of clothes.
Mangione, wearing a dark suit jacket over a checkered button-down and black T-shirt, appeared mostly expressionless during Tuesday’s proceedings, occasionally turning to glance at spectators in the courtroom’s gallery.
Monday’s proceedings featured testimony from a corrections officer who guarded Mangione during his stay at a Pennsylvania state prison. Tomas Rivers, the guard, said the two men talked about the differences between private and universal health insurance, among other topics.
Rivers also testified that Mangione was on “constant watch” in part because the prison wanted to avoid an “Epstein-style situation,” a reference to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019.
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Thompson, 50, in the back on Dec. 4, 2024, while Thompson was heading to a UnitedHealthcare investor conference in Manhattan.
The state charges against Mangione include one count of murder in the second degree, seven counts of various weapons charges, and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Mangione originally faced 11 state charges. But in September, Carro tossed out two of the more severe counts: first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism and second-degree murder as a crime of terrorism.
Detwiler’s testimony included a brief moment of levity in the courtroom. When asked by prosecutors whether it was typical for Altoona residents to wear masks, Detwiler replied: “We don’t wear masks. We have antibodies.” The remark drew laughter from the gallery.