A year to the day after Luigi Mangione allegedly stalked and gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, the 27-year-old alleged killer was identified in court Thursday by one of the police officers who first encountered him in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following the shooting.

“He’s the gentleman right there sitting between the female and the male.  Looks like he’s wearing a suit,” Patrolman Tyler Frye said, pointing with his left hand.

Mangione’s lawyers are attempting to convince the judge overseeing his case to prohibit prosecutors from using critical evidence, including the alleged murder weapon and Mangione’s journal. They argue the evidence was unlawfully seized from his backpack without a warrant during his arrest. 

Mangione, in court for the third day of a pretrial hearing in his state murder case, sat as body camera footage of his arrest played on screens around the courtroom.

Frye, 26, was still a probationary officer, on the job less than a year, when he responded to a McDonald’s on E. Plank Road after the dispatcher told them a manager had called 911 to report someone who looked like the person wanted in the shooting. 

On the body camera footage played in court, someone is heard directing the officers, “He’s back there.”

Frye is seen in the footage standing a few feet from Mangione while Mangione nibbled a hash brown as the officers stalled for time by engaging in small talk about the Steak McMuffin. 

Another officer is heard asking Mangione, “Do you know what all this nonsense is about?” Mangione is heard replying, “We’re going to find out I guess.”

Mangione gave the officers a fake New Jersey ID for a Mark Rosario. 

Officers subsequently informed Mangione he was under “official police investigation” and asked him his real name. Frye, on the video, is seen writing the name “Luigi Mangione” in a small notebook and providing his date of birth. At that point, Mangione is read is Miranda rights.

Defense attorneys are trying to exclude statements Mangione made and the contents of his backpack, including a 3D-printed gun and a red notebook. 

“Where were you standing in relation to the backpack?” prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked Frye on the witness stand. “Right near it,” Frye replied.

“Were you aware of that backpack?” Seidemann asked. “I was,” Frye said.

“When did you become aware of it?” asked Seidemann.

“About the time I walked in,” Frye replied.

Shortly before he was placed under arrest, Mangione is heard on the body camera video questioning the large Altoona Police response. 

“Can I ask why there’re so many cops here?” Mangione asks, after which an officer responds, “Just trying to figure it out.” 

Video footage shows Mangione standing with his hands cuffed behind his back and about nine officers near him in the restaurant. Three officers begin to search Mangione about two minutes later.

When prosecutors asked Frye if Mangione was under arrest at that point, Frye testified, “Yes.” 

Another Altoona officer is seen on video asking Mangione, “Anything in the bag we need to know about?” before officers begin searching Mangione’s backpack. Frye testified he does not recall how Mangione responded. 

Frye said Mangione was taken into custody under a Pennsylvania criminal code for “a type of forgery.” 

The officer also said Mangione spoke briefly to him and Officer Joseph Detwiler during the 10-minute drive from the McDonald’s to the police station.

“The defendant asked us for our names, I believe he also apologized for the inconvenience that was caused in the McDonalds,” Frye said on the stand. “I said that the fake ID was a bit ridiculous.”  

After an initial search at the station, officers on the video tell Mangione he can only wear one layer of clothing and would need to remove the long johns he had under his jeans. 

As additional officers come into the station, an officer carrying Mangione’s backpack says, “There’s a weapon.” 

Body camera video shows officers also performing an “in-depth” search of Mangione — what Frye said was a search that requires defendants to be nude so they can be “searched more thoroughly.”

“We don’t do them very often,” Frye testified. 

A blurred video played in court shows Mangione stripping down before officers’ cameras are turned off for the search. 

Video shows officers continuing to search Mangione’s clothing after he was placed in a cell, finding a bus ticket from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh with the passenger name “Sam Dawson” dated Dec. 4, 2024, in one of his jacket pockets.

They also pull a slip of crumpled white paper from Mangione’s pocket that appeared to be a to-do list. Items listed under the date Dec. 8 included “BestBuy,” “USB 256,” “digital cam,” “hot meal and water bottles” and “trash bags.” Among the items listed under 12/9 was “survival kit.” The right side of the page appeared to have a cursory map of streets. 

Frye testified he had “a very high suspicion” that the person he saw seated at a back corner table was the person wanted for killing the United Healthcare CEO. “I recognized the defendant as the person shown in the media,” Frye said.  

At the defense table, Mangione whispered to defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo as body camera footage played of the encounter inside the McDonald’s.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Jacob Kaplan sought to portray Frye, a rookie officer, as overly eager.

“Would it be a big deal for you if you were the one who arrested the New York City shooter?” Kaplan asked before the judge sustained a prosecutor’s objection to the question. 

The defense also tried to suggest police boxed in Mangione, noting his corner seat against the wall.  

“And right in front of him there’s a table?” Kapla asked. “Yes,” Frye responded. 

“Is there a space between Patrolman Detwiler and that wall?” Kaplan asked, referring to Frye’s partner that day.  “Small space,” Frye said.

On cross-examination, the defense stressed Mangione’s calm demeanor and his cooperation during the McDonald’s encounter.

At one point on the body camera footage, Magione tells an officer he has a pocketknife in his pocket.

“Is that pocketknife illegal?” defense attorney Jacob Kaplan asked.  “It is not,” Frye answered.

“He never acted belligerent, did he?” Kaplan asked.  “No,” Frye said.

“He never attempted to open his backpack at the McDonald’s, did he?” Kaplan asked.  “No,” Frye responded.

The defense also pointed out that, by the end of the encounter, there were 13 Altoona police officers present at the McDonald’s — nearly half the number working that morning.

“Less than 30 officers were working the shift that morning?” Kaplan asked.  “And 13 of them were at the McDonalds?”

Frye responded, “Yes.”

The defense questioned why, at the police station, Mangione was strip-searched when he was arrested on a relatively minor charge of falsely showing a fake ID.

“Ever been involved in a strip search for an arrest for a forgery?” Kaplan asked.  “No,” Frye answered.

Mangione, at the defense table, appeared to perk up during Seidemann’s redirect examination, writing notes, shaking his head and appearing to laugh at one of the questions.  During a quiet moment, Mangione spun in his seat at the sound of clomping heels when two young women entered and took their seats in a row reserved for spectators.

Frye was the day’s only witness. New York State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro said both sides were being “duplicative” and asked them to try and expedite the hearing, which will continue into a fourth day on Friday with a patrolman who conducted an initial search of Mangione and a patrolman who searched his backpack. The proceedings could last into next week.

Judge Carro also said during Thursday’s proceedings that a number of the exhibits introduced so far would be publicly released.