Bullets in Mangione bag convinced police he was CEO who killed suspect, court hears Brian Thompson shot

Moments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.

The discovery, reported in court Monday as Mangione fights to keep evidence from his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pa., that he was the man wanted for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan five days earlier.

“It’s him, man. It’s him, 100 percent,” an officer said on the body-worn camera video of Mangione’s arrest on Dec. 9 last year, punctuating the remark with expletives as the officer searching the bag, Christy Wasser, brandished the magazine.

Wasser, a 19-year veteran of the Altoona police force, testified on the fourth day of a preliminary hearing as Mangione sought to bar prosecutors from using the magazine and other evidence against him, including a 9mm handgun and notebook found during a later search of his bag.

The testimony shed light on the critical minutes following Mangione’s discovery at the McDonald’s and the sometimes unusual steps officers took to gather evidence critical to linking him to the crime.

Mangione’s lawyers argue that the items should be excluded because police did not have a search warrant and did not have grounds to warrant a warrantless search. Prosecutors argue the search was legal and police ultimately obtained a warrant.

Wasser, testifying in uniform, said Altoona police protocols require a rapid search of a suspect’s property at the time of arrest, partly for dangerous items.

On body-worn camera video played in court, Wasser was heard saying she wanted to check the bag for bombs before removing it from the McDonald’s. Despite that concern, she acknowledged in her testimony Monday that police never cleared the restaurant of customers or employees.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. He appeared in good health Monday, pumping his fist for photographers and chatting with his lawyers as testimony resumed.

The hearing, which was postponed Friday due to Mangione’s apparent illness, concerns only the state case. His lawyers are making similar efforts to exclude evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors said the handgun found in the backpack matched the firearm used in the killing and that writings in the notebook showed Mangione’s disdain for health insurers and his ideas about killing a CEO at an investors conference.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he headed to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s investor conference. Surveillance video shows a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police said “delay,” “refuse” and “drop” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles from Manhattan, after police received a 911 call.

Wasser testified that she went to the McDonald’s alone to help another police officer, Joseph Detwiler. Before that, she said, she had seen reports about Thompson’s killing on Fox News.

Wasser began searching Mangione’s bag as officers arrested him on initial charges of forgery and false identification, after he admitted to giving them a fake driver’s license, police said. The same fake name was used by the suspected shooter at a Manhattan hostel days before the shooting.

By then, the handcuffed Mangione had been informed of his right to remain silent – ​​and invoked it – when asked if there was anything the officers should be concerned about.

Wasser told another officer she wanted to check the bag for a bomb before leaving the McDonald’s because she did not want to repeat an incident in which another Altoona police officer inadvertently brought a bomb to the police station.

“Did you call the bomb squad?” » asked Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

“No, I haven’t found a bomb yet,” Wasser said.

According to body-worn camera video, the first items Wasser found were harmless: a hoagie, a loaf of bread and a small bag containing a passport, a cell phone and a computer chip.

Then she pulled out a pair of gray underwear and unwrapped them to reveal the magazine.

Satisfied that there was no bomb, she suspended her search and put some items back in the bag. Some evidence, including Mangione’s laptop, was taken to the police station in a brown paper bag, body-worn camera video shows.

Wasser resumed his search after an 11-minute drive to the police station and almost immediately found the gun and silencer – the latter discovery prompting him to laugh and exclaim “nice,” according to the footage. Wasser said the gun was in a side pocket that she did not search at McDonald’s. Later, while cataloging everything in the bag, she found the notebook.

“Isn’t that great?” Wasser said at one point during the search.

When asked to explain, she told Friedman Agnifilo that she was proud of her police department’s work in helping capture Thompson’s alleged killer.

A prosecutor in Blair County, Pennsylvania, said a judge later signed a search warrant for the bag, hours after the search ended. The warrant, she said, provided a legal mechanism for Altoona police to turn the evidence over to New York detectives.

As he has throughout the case, Assistant Prosecutor Joel Seidemann described Thompson’s killing as an “execution” and called his notebook a “manifesto” — terms that Mangione’s attorneys called prejudicial and inappropriate.

Judge Gregory Carro said the wording had “no bearing” on him, but warned Seidemann that he “certainly wouldn’t do that at trial” when jurors were present.