A bag, a hoagie and a long wait for a ruling: What we learned at Luigi Mangione’s pretrial hearing

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NEW YORK (AP) — A 911 call about a man resembling “the CEO shooter.” Body-camera footage of police arresting Luigi Mangione and pulling items from his backpack, including a gun that prosecutors say matches the one used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and a notebook they have described as a “manifesto.” Notes about a “survival kit” and “intel checkin,” and testimony about alleged statements behind bars.

A three-week pretrial hearing on Mangione’s fight to exclude evidence from his New York murder case ended Thursday after revealing new details about his December 2024 arrest in Altoona, Pennsylvania, steps prosecutors say he took to elude authorities for five days, and what he may have revealed about himself after he was taken into custody.

Mangione watched from the defense table as Manhattan prosecutors called 17 witnesses, many of them police officers and other personnel involved in his arrest. Mangione’s lawyers called none. Judge Gregory Carro said he won’t rule until May 18, “but that could change.”

Mangione, 27, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The pretrial hearing was in the state case, but his lawyers are trying to exclude evidence from both. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Here are some of the things we learned from the hearing:

The public got an extensive, even exhaustive view of how police in Altoona, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan, conducted Mangione’s arrest and searched his backpack after he was spotted eating breakfast at McDonald’s.

While there were quirky moments and asides — about holiday music, a hoagie and more — the point of the hearing was to help the judge assess whether Mangione voluntarily spoke to police and whether the officers were justified in searching his property before getting a warrant.

For the first time, body-worn camera video of Mangione‘s arrest was played in court and some excerpts were made public. Taken from multiple officers’ cameras, the footage put ears and eyes on critical interactions that played out against the incongruously cheerful sound of “Jingle Bell Rock” and other Christmas tunes on the restaurant’s sound system.

Officers on the witness stand were quizzed about what they said and did as Mangione went from noshing on a hash brown to being led away in handcuffs, as well as what they perceived, where they were standing and how they handled evidence after bringing him to a police station.

Mangione’s lawyers argue that neither the results of the search nor statements he made to police should be mentioned at his trial. Prosecutors disagree. Carro didn’t hint at his conclusion. He invited both sides to submit written arguments and said he planned to study the body-camera video before issuing a decision.

Mangione’s lawyers noted that one officer said “we’ll probably need a search warrant” for the backpack, but his colleagues had already rifled through it and later searched the bag again before getting a warrant.

Prosecutors emphasized an Altoona police policy, which they said is rooted in Pennsylvania law, that calls for searching the property of anyone who is being arrested.

The two sides also amplified some contrasting signals, in officers’ words and actions, about their level of concern about whether the backpack contained something dangerous that could justify a warrantless search.

The officer searching the bag, Christy Wasser, testified that she was checking for a bomb. But Mangione’s lawyers pointed out that police didn’t clear the restaurant of customers — some even walked to a bathroom a few feet away — and that Wasser stopped her initial search almost immediately after finding a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.

The find appeared to confirm officers’ suspicions that Mangione was the man wanted for Thompson’s killing.

“It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,” Officer Stephen Fox said on video, punctuating the remark with expletives as Wasser held up the magazine.

Mangione’s statements to police prior to his arrest matter mainly because, as shown on body-worn camera video, he initially gave officers a fake name, Mark Rosario. He eventually acknowledged the ruse and gave his real name after police checked his phony New Jersey driver’s license against a computer database.

The fake name promptly gave Altoona police a reason to arrest him and hold him for New York City police. “If he had provided us with his actual name, he would not have committed a crime,” Fox testified. An NYPD lieutenant testified that the Rosario name matched one the suspected shooter used to purchase a bus ticket to New York and gave at a Manhattan hostel.

Mangione told police early on he didn’t want to talk, but officers engaged him for almost 20 minutes before getting him to admit to lying about his name. After that, a supervisor urged Fox to inform Mangione of his right to remain silent.

An important factor in whether suspects have to be read those rights — known as a Miranda warning — is whether they are in police custody.

Prosecutors elicited testimony from officers suggesting Mangione could have believed he was free to leave when he gave the false name. But one of the first officers to encounter Mangione testified that he “was not free to leave until I identified who he was,” though Mangione wasn’t told so. Defense lawyers also underscored that body camera video showed multiple officers standing between him and the restaurant door.

For the first time, the public heard the 911 call that drew police to the Altoona McDonald’s.

“I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York," the restaurant’s manager told a dispatcher.

Still, the manager, whose name wasn't released, initially told the dispatcher: “It’s not really an emergency."

The manager said Mangione was wearing a medical mask and a beanie pulled down on his forehead, leaving only his eyes and eyebrows visible. She said she searched online for a photo of the suspect for comparison.

At first, Altoona police officers were skeptical that Thompson’s killer might be in their city of about 44,000 people.

Joseph Detwiler, the first officer to arrive at McDonald’s, sarcastically responded “10-4” when a dispatcher asked him to check on the manager’s 911 call, a police supervisor testified.

The supervisor, Lt. Tom Hanelly Jr., testified that he texted Detwiler a reminder to take the call seriously and offered to buy the officer his favorite hoagie — a large turkey from local sandwich shop Luigetta’s — if he nabbed “the New York City shooter.”

Though, Hanelly acknowledged on the witness stand, “it seemed preposterous on its face.”

Hanelly said he searched for a direct line “to get the ball rolling” with NYPD investigators but ended up calling New York City's 911 center.

“We’re acting off a tip from a local business here. We might have the shooter,” Hanelly said in a recording played in court.

Hanelly said an NYPD detective called him back about 45 minutes later.

Mangione stayed active throughout the hearing, taking notes, reading documents, conferring with his lawyers and occasionally looking back toward his two dozen or so supporters in the courtroom gallery.

He watched intently as prosecutors played a surveillance video of the killing and viewed footage of his interactions with Altoona police. He pressed a finger to his lips and a thumb to his chin as he watched footage of two police officers approaching him at the McDonald’s.

He gripped a pen in his right hand, making a fist at times, as prosecutors played the 911 call.

Mangione was brought to court each morning from a federal jail in Brooklyn, wearing gray or dark blue suits instead of jail garb. His hands were uncuffed throughout the proceedings.

One day, he pumped his fist for photographers. Another day, he shooed away a photographer he felt had gotten too close to him.

Along with the gun and notebook, police officers said Mangione’s backpack was stuffed with food, electronics and notes including to-do lists, a hand-drawn map and tactics for surviving on the lam — items Altoona Police Sgt. Eric Heuston described as “goodies” that might link the suspect to the killing.

“Keep momentum, FBI slower overnight,” said one note. “Change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows,” said another.

One note said to check for “red eyes” from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio, or Cincinnati (“get off early,” it reads). The map showed lines linking those cities and noted other possible destinations, including Detroit and St. Louis.

Other items found on Mangione or in his bag included a pocketknife, driver’s license, passport, credit cards, AirPods, a protein bar, travel toothpaste and flash drives, police said.

Heuston testified that he read portions of the notebook to NYPD detectives by phone and suggested that the finds "made it more likely than not that he was the shooter.”

Before he was moved to New York City, Mangione was held under close watch in a Pennsylvania state prison.

Correctional officer Matthew Henry testified that Mangione volunteered that he had a backpack with a 3D-printed pistol and foreign currency when he was arrested.

Correctional officer Tomas Rivers testified that Mangione asked him whether the news media was focused on him as a person or on the crime of Thompson’s killing. He said Mangione expressed that he wanted to make a public statement.

Rivers said Mangione also talked about his travels to Asia, including witnessing a gang fight in Thailand, and discussed differences between private and nationalized health care.

Rivers said Mangione was under special supervision partly because the prison superintendent had said he “did not want an Epstein-style situation,” referring to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a Manhattan federal jail in 2019.