Editor’s note: This is Day 2 of JURIST’s coverage of Mangione’s suppression hearings. Read Day 1 here.

On day two of the suppression hearings in the New York state case against Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, CEO of medical insurance company UnitedHealthcare, in December 2024, prosecutors devoted the day to a single witness: Altoona, Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Detweiler.

Mangione faces a nine-count indictment including second-degree murder, where he faces 25 years to life, and multiple weapons offenses. The defense is seeking to suppress key evidence, including items found during what they argue was a warrantless search of Mangione’s backpack at an Altoona McDonald’s, as well as statements Mangione allegedly made to law enforcement.

The almost six hours of direct and cross-examination can be quite a drain on court reporters’ laptops. Lorena O’Neil, author of the prominent Rolling Stone article, “The Life and Mystery of Luigi Mangione,” chatted with me while we sat in the pews. We talked about what it was like to cover the case as we both took notes and live-tweeted developments in the proceedings. During lunch, we both huddled over what appeared to be the only functional outlet on the 13th floor to recharge our laptops and to continue typing furiously. Like courtroom sketch artist Christine Cornell, O’Neil commented on the idiosyncratic nature of the case, to which I agreed. Indeed, the Mangione matter is a curious phenomenon.

Mangione arrived in court wearing a black suit with a light gray checked button-down shirt. Throughout the proceedings, he remained mostly stoic. Seemingly unperturbed, he showed little emotion, occasionally resting his arm on the back of his chair.

During the proceedings, Officer Detweiler—one of the police officers who arrested Mangione—walked the court through his December 9, 2024 arrest inside a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The arrest produced key body-camera footage, a forged New Jersey driver’s license, and a stack of different currencies—evidence now critical to Mangione’s suppression fight.

Officer Detweiler testified that he had been working an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. patrol shift on the day he arrested Mangione. Officer Detweiler explained that Blair County 911 dispatched officers to the Altoona McDonald’s after receiving a report of a “suspicious male” who “look[ed] like the NYC shooter.” The call came in at around 9 a.m., he said. Officer Detweiler stated that when he first heard the report, he did not expect it to pan out. “I was being semi-sarcastic when I said it,” he told the court, recalling his reaction. “I did not think it was going to be the person that they thought it was.” Detweiler testified that his lieutenant texted him, writing that if he caught the “New York City shooter,” he would buy him a “hoagie.” When asked by Manhattan District Attorney Joel Siedemann if he remembered where from, Detweiler replied, an eatery called “Luigetta’s.”

During his testimony, Officer Detweiler said he had watched “a lot of Fox News” in the five days after the December 4, 2024 shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, and seen “a lot” of photos and videos of the suspected shooter. He recalled a Fox News image of “a man holding a gun with a knapsack on his back,” two photographs from a hostel, and a surveillance still of “a male in the back seat of a cab with a medical mask on,” which he said were all associated with the New York investigation. Fox News was one of the first outlets to release photos of the then at-large shooting suspect. Brian Thompson was shot shortly before 7 a.m., and Fox News published security footage and stills of the suspect provided by the New York Police Department’s Crime Stoppers by approximately 10:30 a.m.

Officer Detweiler’s body camera footage depicted him with another patrolman, Officer Frye, driving to the restaurant in a police cruiser, pulling into the McDonald’s driveway, and entering through the main entrance. The audio recording began when they crossed into the dining area.

Inside, Officer Detweiler said he immediately saw a male—later identified as Mangione—seated at a table near the restrooms at the back of the restaurant. Detweiler described him as wearing a tan beanie and blue medical mask. The footage showed Officer Detweiler approaching the man and initiating conversation. “Someone called and thought you were suspicious,” he can be heard saying. He asked, “Can you pull the mask down?” Mangione replied, “Yeah sure,” and lowered his blue medical mask.

Officer Detweiler testified that “as soon as he pulled the mask down for us, I knew it was him immediately.” Detweiler asked the then-suspect for his name. “Mark Rosario,” he answered, before producing a New Jersey driver’s license bearing the same name. The prosecutor projected a huge, magnified picture of the New Jersey driver license photo and address at the front of the courtroom.

In the body camera footage, Officer Detweiler could be seen engaging in small talk with Mangione, telling him there was a policy against sitting in the restaurant too long—a claim the officer acknowledged on the stand was untrue and intended to keep Mangione “calm” and believing “everything was normal.”

While speaking with the two officers, Mangione calmly ate a meal at his table: first a hash brown, then a steak sandwich. Classical Christmas music, including “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” played faintly in the background as the officers moved around him.

At one point, Officer Detweiler asked Mangione to stand up and place his hands on top of his head before searching him. The body cam footage showed Officer Detweiler giving the instruction multiple times, explaining on the stand that Mangione did not comply the first two times. Officer Detweiler alleged that he conducted a pat-down search for safety purposes because he was “100% sure” Mangione was the New York shooter and knew that a gun had not yet been recovered. He stated that he did not find a firearm on Mangione during the pat-down search, but noted that Mangione was wearing “several layers” of clothing, including a very puffy coat.

Officer Detweiler then said he believed there may be a firearm inside of Mangione’s backpack and promptly took Mangione’s backpack.

Questioning the then-suspect, Officer Detweiler asked where he was from. Mangione replied that he was from New Jersey. When asked whether he had been “up in New York lately,” Mangione responded, “no,” with a slight huff in his voice. Officers also asked Mangione why he looked nervous. When the officers asked if he was visiting family in the area, Mangione replied that he was “homeless.” The conversation lasted for about 20 minutes until Mangione declared that he did not want to talk. The officers then read Mangione his Miranda warning.

According to Officer Detweiler, the officers questioned Mangione about the use of a fake name, warning him that he was “under official police investigation,” and that if he gave a false name again, he would be arrested for false identification under Pennsylvania law. Mangione then identified himself as “Luigi Mangione,” spelling his full name and providing his actual date of birth, May 6, 1998. Another officer present at the scene, Patrolman Fox, then read him his Miranda rights. Officer Fox told Mangione that he was not in custody, but under official police investigation, according to Officer Detweiler’s testimony. Officer Detweiler then explained the difference between the terms “detained” and in “custody” under Pennsylvania law for the court. He defined “detained” as someone not being free to leave pending investigation, after which a person might either be released or temporarily held in police custody. “Custody,” he said, meant being arrested for an offense. He testified that at approximately 10 a.m. Mangione was formally placed into custody for forgery of the fake ID card and related Pennsylvania charges. He described conducting a search incident to arrest, during which he put on black rubber gloves and searched Mangione.

From Mangione’s person, Detweiler removed a hand-sized pouch with a blue and white tropical design. Inside were four foreign paper currencies: 20 Thai baht, 100 Thai baht, a 500 Indian rupee note, and 1,000 Japanese yen, along with a slew of $100 bills and one $50 bill amounting to $7,000. The foreign cash could possibly be from Mangione’s previous travels, as it amounted to approximately $15, and Mangione reportedly visited Thailand, India, and Japan in 2024. Another officer removed additional property, including change, a jar of Skippy peanut butter, and a rolled-up piece of string or rope.

The prosecutor showed the court the Pennsylvania criminal complaint, which Officer Detweiler had signed as the arresting officer. He confirmed that it charged Mangione with forgery (a second-degree felony), firearms offenses (third-degree felonies), tampering with records of identification, and false identification to law enforcement, all under Pennsylvania law. On cross-examination by Mangione’s defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Officer Detweiler testified that forgery was the top charge because he “was told to charge that.” He confirmed that there were no New York state charges listed in the Pennsylvania complaint, and that he had no knowledge of New York law on search and seizure, questioning, or arrest.

Friedman Agnifilo pressed Officer Detweiler on whether he and Patrolman Frye had effectively blocked the exits and ensured Mangione could not leave once they recognized him, potentially invoking evidence suppression on the grounds of Miranda rights violations, which require law enforcement to read suspects their Miranda rights before taking suspects into custodial interrogation. This is when a suspect believes they are not able to leave, or can potentially make self-incriminating statements. Friedman Agnifilo emphasized body camera footage showing both officers positioned around Mangione, blocking his path to the nearest door. Officer Detweiler denied “strategically” placing himself to prevent Mangione’s exit, saying he was mostly standing near Mangione’s backpack over his concern for a possible firearm. Officer Detweiler did, however, state that he believed there was a “high level of threat” when Mangione pulled his mask down because he allegedly recognized Mangione as the man who “came up behind [Thompson] and shot him in the back.”

Friedman Agnifilo also asked Officer Detweiler about a comment attributed to Corporal Trent regarding the need for a search warrant. She replayed the body camera audio in which Corporal Trent said, “we’ll need a search warrant.” Officer Detweiler conceded that Corporal Trent had indeed made that statement, clarifying that Corporal Trent was not present for all parts of certain videos. He also said that he did not recall every detail. Mangione’s defense team aims to have the court suppress key evidence in the case due to the police officers violating laws requiring them to have a warrant before searching him and his backpack. However, many legal experts view this as an uphill battle because the prosecutor may raise the doctrine of inevitable discovery. Under this doctrine, evidence obtained unlawfully—that is, without a search warrant—may be admissible if the court determines that the police officers would have lawfully and inevitably discovered the evidence anyway. As such, the court may find that it was necessary for the officers to conduct a warrantless search for safety reasons.

On cross-examination, Officer Detweiler said that Mangione did not fight with officers or physically resist. He testified that Mangione was “cooperative” and “calm.”

Friedman Agnifilo also challenged the honorary distinction New York authorities gave Officer Detweiler after the arrest, noting that the New York authorities had formally recognized him as an honorary police officer. He said that his wife had posted to social media a photograph of him receiving an award from the New York Police Department. When asked if he was proud of apprehending Mangione, he said, “To me this is another arrest,” and that he was simply proud of doing “a good job.”

The latter part of the hearing focused on whether body camera footage as business records of the Altoona Police Department was admissible in court. Prosecutors argued that the footage from multiple officers constituted official business records, which would allow the footage to be admitted under a hearsay exception. Mangione’s defense counsel objected to the admission of certain videos where Officer Detweiler was not present for the events depicted, arguing that he could not properly testify to what was happening in those segments.

As the hearing was scheduled to conclude for the day, a dispute abruptly arose over press access.

Mangione’s defense attorney raised concerns over providing full copies of the body camera footage to the media—beyond what was already being played in open court—because it could prejudice potential jurors in both the state and federal cases. Counsel cited the Daily News v. Wiley case to argue that “copies of footage should not be provided to the media.” The defense continued that allowing the press access to the footage before trial would substantially undermine Mangione’s fair trial rights. “We’re not playing snippets, we’re playing [the] entirety of footage,” one of Mangione’s defense lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, told Judge Carro.

In the gallery, a reporter stood up and countered, “as a member of the press,” before being cut off by a court officer who immediately told her, “ma’am, step out.” Mangione turned his head around to view the fiasco, raising his eyebrows. A vocal altercation ensued before the reporter declared, “I’ll call my lawyer” before being escorted out of the courtroom by officers.

Soon after, Judge Carro announced, “Since this is a suppression hearing, and the court has not ruled whether this evidence will be admitted at any trial, sealing would prevent substantial possibility that the defendant’s right to a fair trial would be harmed.” He continued, “At this time, I will seal every exhibit that is video until we start the trial. Then, the press can move to have that unsealed.”

The hearing concluded for the day. Within 24 hours, several news outlets, some armed with lawyers, wrote to Judge Carro, decrying the ruling.