New York City prosecutors have released the Pennsylvania 911 call that led to the arrest of accused assassin Luigi Mangione after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A McDonald’s manager, whose name was redacted from the recording, described a masked shopper wearing a black hooded jacket with his hat pulled low, carrying a CVS or Walgreens back while eating at a corner table near the bathroom.
“I’m a manager at Plank Road McDonald’s out here on the boulevard,” she told the dispatcher. “And I have a customer here, that some other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”
At the end of the five-minute call, the dispatcher told the manager to sit tight and remain vigilant.
“I do have an officer on the way for ya,” the dispatcher said. “Just keep an eye on him. If he leaves, just give us a call back and let us know, OK?”
The recording was played in court for the first time earlier this week as part of an evidence suppression hearing that stretched on for days. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office released it Thursday evening.
BODYCAM SHOWS LUIGI MANGIONE CRACKING JOKE AS SWARM OF COPS CLOSES IN ON HIM AT MCDONALD’S
Mangione returns to court Friday for more of the hearing. His lawyers are asking the judge to suppress evidence taken from his backpack after his arrest as well as statements he made during the McDonald’s incident and to jail guards in the following days.
While they raised Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns, prosecutors have dismissed their claims, arguing that police acted lawfully and appropriately, that the warrantless search of his bag after his arrest was routine and legal and that the only relevant non-Mirandized statement he made was to allegedly give officers a fake name when he showed them a phony ID.
Officers are allowed to ask someone’s name without reading them a Miranda warning, legal experts say.
Other evidence prosecutors made public Thursday included photos of Mangione’s personal effects, thousands of dollars in cash and his MacBook laptop.
