Luigi Mangione hearing: Officer recalls arrest at McDonald's

"A Pennsylvania police officer responding to a tip from the manager of a McDonald's testified Tuesday about confronting Luigi Mangione during the intense manhunt last year for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's killer. As soon as Mangione doffed his medical mask at the restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Officer Joseph Detwiler said, "I knew" he was the suspect whose face had been all over the news since the shooting five days earlier on a Manhattan sidewalk."

"But Detwiler testified that he'd noticed the man's fingers shaking as they interacted and officers patted him down. Over the ensuing minutes, Mangione placidly ate a hash brown as the officers waited for colleagues and claimed they were simply responding to loitering concerns at the eatery. "I was trying to keep him calm," Detwiler told the court, adding that he at one point started whistling over the restaurant's holiday-season music to "make him think that nothing was different about this call than any other call.""

"Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to "wack" a health insurance executive."

Police in Altoona, Pennsylvania confronted Luigi Mangione after a McDonald's manager tipped them off and he removed his medical mask. Officer Joseph Detwiler testified that he recognized Mangione from media photos five days after the Manhattan shooting that killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione gave a false name and identification, appeared nervous with shaking fingers, and ate a hash brown while officers awaited backup. Officers searched him and his backpack and seized a 9 mm handgun and a notebook alleged to describe intent to "wack" a health insurance executive. Defense attorneys seek to exclude those statements and items at trial.

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