‘He looks like the CEO shooter’: Court hears 911 call that led to Luigi Mangione’s arrest

MANHATTAN (CN) — McDonald’s customers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, last December were “suspicious” of a man eating breakfast in the back of the restaurant, now known to be Luigi Mangione, according to a 911 call played publicly for the first time on Monday.

New York prosecutors played the audio clip as part of a broader hearing regarding evidence suppression in Manhattan criminal court. Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last winter, is trying to toss certain evidence ahead of his state murder trial.

“I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of, that he looks like the CEO shooter in New York,” the McDonald’s manager said on the phone with emergency services on Dec. 9, 2024. “And they’re just really upset and come to me, and I’m like, I can’t approach him.”

The manager, whose name has not been revealed, appeared calm and apologetic, telling the operator that she tried to call the non-emergency number in Blair County, Pennsylvania. She even continued taking orders while on the phone, at one point discussing a batch of bagels with a co-worker and shouting, “One of them is no butter!”

Emily States, the 911 operator who testified about the call, can be heard on the tape asking the manager for a description of the man.

“The only thing you can see is the eyebrows,” the manager said before describing his outfit: a black jacket, tan beanie and blue surgical mask pulled over his face.

Mangione ditched the wintery getup from last December for a gray suit and patterned white and red shirt. He arrived at the packed Manhattan courtroom just before 11 a.m., where he sat uncuffed at the defense table throughout the day.

At times, the 27-year-old murder suspect was stoic. He leaned back and watched as footage of Thompson’s early morning killing played on courtroom monitors. He intently stared at the screens when footage rolled of his arrest at the McDonald’s — new security footage played to the court shows the fast food restaurant gradually filling with cops.

The footage also clarified the timeline of events that day. Mangione sat to eat his meal at 9:03 a.m., and 911 came 11 minutes later. At 9:28, the first two police officers started questioning Mangione. By 9:42, the restaurant was packed with at least eight, which the defense claims amounted to an unlawful detention prior to his arrest.

At other points in Monday’s proceedings, Mangione was more expressive. He gently shook his head and appeared to chuckle when his former corrections officer testified about him fighting a “gang of ladyboys” in Thailand.

It was one of the several “casual, natural” conversations Pennsylvania Corrections Officer Thomas Rivers said he had with Mangione. Rivers, a former British infantryman, testified that he was assigned to keep constant watch on Mangione during his stint at the SCI Huntingdon jail.

“I was told, and these are not the words I would use personally, I was told SCI Huntingdon did not want an Epstein-style situation,” Rivers said, referencing the notorious suicide of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Assigned to keep watch just a couple of feet from Mangione’s plexiglass cell door, Rivers said he and Mangione chatted about health care, travel and literature throughout his shift. Mangione even recommended him a book — Aldous Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception” — which Rivers said he never cared enough to look into.

Mangione appeared disappointed; he shook his head from the defense table.

The pair also discussed how the case was being portrayed in the media, according to Rivers, and Mangione being disheartened by comparisons to the Unabomber.

“He vocalized to me that he was disappointed that he was being compared to Ted Kaczynski because someone saw he reviewed one of his books on Goodreads or Google or something,” Rivers said.

Mangione supposedly wrote that Kaczynski’s actions “cross[ed] the line,” according to a batch of journal entries recovered during his arrest that prosecutors attribute to him.

A second corrections officer to testify claimed he was less chatty with Mangione. Matt Henry said he was “agitated” to be in court. He claimed he had no interest in speaking with Mangione while he, too, was assigned to keep the murder suspect on constant watch last year.

Henry also claimed Mangione told him, unprompted, that he was caught with a 3D-printed firearm, which prosecutors claim was used in Thompson’s murder.

“So he just blurted out to you that he had a 3D-printed pistol?” asked Mangione’s attorney Marc Agnifilo.

“Yes,” Henry replied monotonously.

It’s one of many pieces of evidence Mangione’s defense team is trying to deem inadmissible. They claim statements he made to the corrections officers were illegally coerced and that he was unlawfully surrounded by cops before being detained at the Altoona McDonald’s. They also argue that Mangione’s backpack, recovered during his arrest, was warrantlessly searched by officers on the scene.

The hearing is expected to span multiple days, with prosecutors slated to elicit testimony from more than two dozen witnesses to justify their evidence. Just five took the stand on Monday.

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