A supervising police officer who was present at the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania when police apprehended accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione was heard on body camera footage saying Altoona police “probably” needed a warrant to continue searching Mangione’s backpack.

The footage was played during Day 4 of a pretrial hearing Monday in which Mangione’s defense lawyers are trying to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant.

Altoona police arrested Mangione last December after being called to a McDonald’s where Mangione was eating, five days after he allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Patrolman Christy Wasser had conducted a cursory search of Mangion’s backpack, telling the superior officer on body camera footage, “We just wanted to make sure there’s no bomb.”

Corporal Garrett Trent replied, “I understand.  At this point we probably need a search warrant.”

Another officer is heard saying, “But it’s search incident to arrest,” the term that authorizes Pennsylvania police officers to search individuals once they’re taken into custody. 

“Yeah, but we are aware of that crime,” Trent responded. 

Altoona officers may have been aware of the fatal shooting of Thompson, but at that point, Mangione only had been arrested for forgery based on the fake driver’s license police said he was carrying. The defense has argued the backpack search exceeded what might have otherwise been allowed.

“Isn’t it true that you were actually searching his bag because you thought he was the New York City shooter?” defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked Wasser on the stand Monday.  “No, we search everyone,” Wasser responded.

“You were looking for evidence he was the New York City shooter,” Agnifilo insisted.

The defense also seized on a statement Wasser is heard making near the end of the search at the stationhouse: “Isn’t this awesome.”

Wasser testified she said it “because I’m proud of our department.”  Agnifilo jumped in, “Because you caught the NYC shooter?”  Wasser responded, “Possibly.”

Agnifilo accused Wasser of pulling over on the way from the McDonald’s to the police station and searching the bag again, nothing the drive took her 11 minutes — two minutes longer than it took other officers.

“That is not true,” Wasser said.

When Mangione was formally placed under arrest at 9:58 a.m., Wasser — a 19-year Altoona Police Department veteran — testified that she “walked over and picked up his backpack,” immediately pulling out a pocketknife and a loaf of bread.

Two minutes into the search, Wasser was seen on body camera video extracting “wet, gray underwear” from the backpack. “And when I opened it up, it was a magazine,” she testified.

Prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked it was “fully loaded,” and Wasser responded, “Yes.”

Wasser also said she discovered a phone in a Faraday bag, designed to conceal its signal.

An officer was heard suggesting that the bag be brought to the police station to check for bombs. Wasser was heard joking that she preferred to check it at the McDonald’s because she “didn’t want to pull a Moser” — a sarcastic reference, she said, to a former Altoona officer who brought a bomb to the police station.

Defense lawyers have argued Wasser’s actions violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and should justify excluding any of the evidence found in the bag, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession. 

The defense is also trying to cast doubt on Wasser’s claim that she was searching for a potential bomb, arguing in court filings that the mention of a bomb was an “excuse designed to cover up an illegal warrantless search of the backpack.”

During cross examination, defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked Wasser if she cleared the McDonald’s while searching for a potential bomb, and Wasser replied, “No.”

Friedman Agnifilo asked, “Do you ask anyone to leave the area you are in?” and, “Do you prevent anything from coming into that side area of the McDonald’s to use the bathroom?” Wasser replied, “No” to both questions.

“Do you feel around the bag and feel something that feels like a bomb?” Friedman Agnifilo asked.

“Not at this point,” Wasser said.

Friedman Agnifilo also attempted to highlight that Wasser eagerly arrived at the McDonald’s after the officer who first responded to the call told her that he was busy.

“I told you I was busy,” officer Joseph Detwiler was heard saying on body camera footage. “But I started over anyway,” Wasser said.

When their back-and-forth abruptly stopped, Wasser acknowledged that she “possibly” stopped talking to Detwiler over concerns about being caught on his body-worn camera.

“You came because you wanted to be there,” Friedman Agnifilo said. “Nobody else asked you to go.”

At 10:03 a.m. an officer was heard on the camera footage mentioning a search warrant. A different officer was heard saying that one was not needed at that stage.

Although Wasser’s initial search of the backpack uncovered the magazine, she missed the loaded handgun, silencer, and journal that were buried deeper in the bag, she testified.  Wasser testified that she only discovered those items when she conducted a further search after driving from the McDonald’s to the Altoona police station. 

“There’s a weapon!” she’s heard shouting on the video footage to the other officers in the intake area, as Mangione was being searched just feet away with his ankles shackled. 

“Is that the first time you opened that zipper section on the side?” Seidemann asked Wasser on the witness stand.

“Yes, sir,” she affirmed.  

With Mangione just feet away from her in the station’s intake area, she testified it would be “unwise” to continue the search near Mangione. 

“Were the defendant’s hands free at the time you took out the gun?” asked Seidemann. 

“Yes,” she testified. 

Body camera footage showed Wasser and Deputy Chief Derek Swope take the weapon over to a nearby hallway — behind a locked door — where she cleared the gun. She mumbled — at times inaudibly — when she explained the situation to Swope on the video. 

“We just checked the bag … to make sure there were no bombs or anything,” she said on the body camera footage. 

As the search continued, Wasser quickly uncovered a silencer buried beneath other items in the bag. She also found a journal allegedly belonging to Mangione. 

“Holy s—,” Swope can be heard saying in the body camera footage. 

Wasser testified that she was cautious when checking the back because the nature of Mangione’s alleged crime “greatened [her] concern.” 

“I just wanted to make sure there was nothing that could harm anybody,” she testified. 

“Did any of your supervisors say, ‘Stop — go get a search warrant?'” asked Seidermann.  

“No,” she said. 

The stationhouse backpack search also turned up a slip of paper with a crude, handwritten map of Pittsburgh, Wasser testified, as well as what Seidemann described as possible escape routes.

The note said, “Keep momentum, FBI slower overnight” and “Break CAM continuity.” Another line read, “3+ hrs off cam, exit diff method (ex: megabus, rail)” and a note saying “check reports for current situation.” The note also said, “bus to Penn station,” “change hat” and “either taxi … or cross river.”

Wasser was also heard on body camera footage saying she pulled hair clippers from Mangione’s bag.

Earlier in the body camera video — when she was still searching the bag at the McDonald’s while “The Twelve Days of Christmas” blared in the background — prosecutors highlighted an exchange between officers and a supervisor about whether a warrant was necessary. One officer remarked that a warrant might be needed “because of the severity of the case,” but their supervisor interjected to say that no warrant was required because the incident was a “search incident to arrest” — a warrantless search conducted of an area within the arrestee’s immediate surroundings. 

Prosecutor Nichole Smith of Pennsylvania’s Blair County District Attorney’s office also testified, outlining the chain of custody of items seized from Mangione after he was apprehended.

Smith recalled a lieutenant from the Altoona Police Department calling her at 9:53 a.m. to advise her “that he had the individual responsible for the CEO shooting” at McDonald’s. Smith said she was in court at the time and interrupted the proceeding to inform her boss, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.

Smith said she and Weeks advised Altoona police to charge Mangione with forgery, carrying a firearm without a license, tampering with records for identification, possessing instruments of a crime and providing false identification to law enforcement.

Smith described a search warrant that obtained a court’s permission to seize Mangione’s belongings, including items in his backpack, and transfer them to the NYPD.

“Certain items in that bag were not inherently contraband, so we wanted to ensure that the court had approved,” Smith testified. “When they search the bag and they discover, for instance, the firearm, the ammunition and the suppressor, when he does not have a valid permit to carry those items concealed, they become contraband.”

Handwritten notes that police said they also discovered in Mangione’s backpack were not relevant to the local charges in Pennsylvania. Ordinarily, they would have been put aside and saved. The warrant allowed those items to be transferred as possible evidence in the New York case.

Friedman Agnifilo objected to Seidemann referring to the writings as an alleged “manifesto” and Thompson’s killing as an “execution.” Judge Gregory Carro said it was fine for the ongoing suppression hearing but said, “You’re certainly not going to do that at trial.”

The hearing was scheduled to resume on Tuesday for the fifth day of testimony.