A distinctive facial feature helped alert patrons of a Pennsylvania McDonaldâs that suspected UnitedHealthCare CEO killer Luigi Mangione was eating at the restaurant, prompting management to call the police who ultimately arrested him, a New York court heard on Monday.
A manager at an Altoona McDonaldâs called police at 9:14 a.m. on December 9, 2024, telling dispatchers a âfranticâ female customer was âreally upsetâ because she thought the masked Mangione was inside the franchise.
As the operator asked for more identifying information about how Mangione looked, the manager responded, âThe only thing you can see are his eyebrows.â
Police officers were dispatched two minutes later, and Mangione was eventually arrested. The arrest followed police flagging Mangioneâs face in the first place after he lowered his mask to smile at a hostel clerk in New York.
The 911 audio was played for the court as part of pre-trial deliberations over evidence obtained in the arrest.
Ahead of the state murder trial over CEO Brian Thompsonâs killing in Manhattan last year, Mangione is seeking to stop the Manhattan District Attorneyâs Office from showing or describing to jurors a gun and a personal notebook police say they recovered from his bag during his arrest.
The prosecution has quoted from the notebook extensively as it makes it case, including sections where Mangione allegedly praised the Unabomber and wrote that Thompson was a âgreedy bastard that had it coming.â
The 27-year-old inmateâs attorneys claim his rights were âtrampledâ during the arrest because officers initially searched his backpack without a warrant and questioned him for about 20 minutes before reading him his rights.
Elsewhere during Mondayâs proceedings, where Mangione sat quietly and listened to the evidence as supporters looked on from the court gallery, a Pennsylvania corrections officer testified about speaking with Mangione during his time being held in the state prior to his extradition back to New York.
Tomas Rivers, a guard at SCI Huntingdon, a high-security prison near Altoona, said he and Mangione spoke of “the difference between private health care and nationalized health care,â and added that Mangione claimed at one point he âwanted to make a statement to the publicâ during his detention, a suggestion the guard ignored.
In September, Judge Gregory Carro threw out state terrorism charges against Mangione.
The 27-year-old faces up to life in prison in the state case and could face the death penalty if found guilty in a separate federal case.
No trial date has been set for either case.
