According to prosecutors, Mangione fled to Newark, New Jersey, immediately after the shooting and took a train to Philadelphia. Among the evidence shown at the pretrial hearing was a Philadelphia transit pass purchased at 1.06pm – little more than six hours after the shooting – and a ticket for a Greyhound bus, booked under the name Sam Dawson, leaving Philadelphia at 6.30pm and arriving in Pittsburgh at 11.55pm.
Police in Altoona responded to the McDonald’s call on December 9 last year after a manager called 911 to relay concerns from customers who thought that Mangione, eating breakfast in a back corner, resembled the man wanted for killing Thompson.
Luigi Mangione in court on Monday.Credit: AP
On the call, played in court, the manager could be heard saying that, because Mangione was wearing a medical mask, she could only see his eyebrows and that she searched online for a photo of the suspect for comparison.
Police officers who gave evidence at the hearing this week say it had been raining that day and the bag they found on Mangione, and items inside it, were wet. They were heard on the body-worn camera footage played in court theorising that Mangione had got soaked walking from the city’s bus station.
Taken from a body camera worn by another officer, the video excerpt, which goes for two minutes and 14 seconds, shows Detwiler walking up to Mangione as he sat in the rear of the McDonald’s, wearing a blue mask, a tan cap and a black jacket.
“Do you mind lowering your mask?” Detwiler said to Mangione. “What’s your name?”
Luigi Mangione eats breakfast in the bodycam footage.Credit: AP
Police ask Luigi Mangione to lower his mask.Credit: AP
Mangione said his name was “Mark Rosario”, and Detwiler asked him for identification. He handed the officer a fake New Jersey driver’s licence, which is visible in the video.
Mangione was charged in Pennsylvania with forgery, giving a false ID to police and possessing a gun without a licence. State and federal prosecutors in New York later charged him with murder. He pleaded not guilty.
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Mangione’s lawyers had said that releasing the video would prejudice Mangione’s right to a fair trial. Judge Gregory Carro ruled last week that he would seal the videos until the trial started, when the media could apply for their release. A coalition of media outlets, including Bloomberg News, moved last week to secure the release of the videos.
In response to a request for comment on the release of the footage, Mangione’s lawyers referred to a letter they sent to the judge earlier on Tuesday.
“Providing the body-worn camera footage to the media to be repeatedly played before Mr Mangione’s state and federal trials creates a substantial probability that Mr Mangione’s right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by potential jurors seeing this footage in the media,” the lawyers wrote.
