‘There’s a gun!’: Cop testifies as evidence he found a gun in Luigi Mangione’s bag

A supervising police officer who was present at the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania when police arrested accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione could be heard on surveillance footage saying that Altoona police “probably” needed a warrant to further search Mangione’s backpack.

The footage was played during Day 4 of a pretrial hearing, in which Mangione’s lawyers are seeking to exclude from the trial critical evidence they say was illegally taken 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 shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Patrolman Christy Wasser had conducted a cursory search of Mangion’s backpack and told the superior officer on body camera footage, “We wanted to make sure there wasn’t a bomb.”

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

Another officer says, “But it’s a search incident to arrest,” the term that authorizes Pennsylvania police officers to search individuals once they are in custody.

“Yes, but we are aware of that crime,” Trent replied.

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

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

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

The defense also seized on a statement Wasser heard make near the end of the search of the station building: “Isn’t this wonderful.”

Wasser testified that she said it “because I am proud of our department.” Agnifilo jumped in, “Because you caught the shooter in New York?” Wasser replied, “Possibly.”

Agnifilo accused Wasser of stopping on the way from the McDonald’s to the police station and searching the bag again, nothing. The journey took her eleven minutes – two minutes longer than other officers.

“That’s not true,” Wasser said.

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

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

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

Wasser also said she discovered a phone in a Faraday bag designed to hide the signal.

An officer was heard suggesting the bag should be taken to the police station to check for bombs. Wasser joked that she preferred to check at 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 attorneys have argued that Wasser’s actions violated Mangione’s constitutional rights and should justify the exclusion of all evidence 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 looking for a possible 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 had cleared the McDonald’s while looking for a possible bomb, and Wasser replied, “No.”

Friedman Agnifilo asked, “Are you asking anyone to leave the area you are in?” and, “Are you preventing anything from getting into that side area of ​​the McDonald’s to use the bathroom?” Wasser responded, “No” to both questions.

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

“Not at this time,” Wasser said.

Friedman Agnifilo also tried to emphasize that Wasser eagerly arrived at the McDonald’s after the officer who first responded to the call told her 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 because she was afraid she would be caught by his body-worn camera.

“You came because you wanted to be there,” Friedman Agnifilo said. “No one else asked you to go.”

At 10:03 a.m., an officer could be heard on the CCTV footage reporting a search warrant. It was heard from another officer that it was not needed at the time.

Although Wasser’s initial search for the backpack revealed the magazine, she missed the loaded gun, silencer and diary buried deeper in the bag, she testified. Wasser testified that she only discovered those items when she continued searching after driving from the McDonald’s to the Altoona police station.

“There’s a gun!” she was heard on the video yelling at the other officers in the intake room as Mangione was searched just feet away with his ankles shackled.

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

“Yes, sir,” she confirmed.

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

“Were the suspect’s hands free when you grabbed the gun?” Seidemann asked.

“Yes,” she testified.

Body camera footage showed Wasser and Deputy Chief Derek Swope taking the weapon to a nearby hallway — behind a locked door — where they disposed of the gun. She mumbled – sometimes inaudibly – as she explained the situation on the video to Swope.

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

As the search continued, Wasser quickly discovered a silencer buried among other items in the bag. She also found a diary that reportedly belonged to Mangione.

“Holy s—,” Swope is heard saying on the body camera footage.

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

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

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

“No,” she said.

A search of the backpack in the station building also turned up a scrap of paper with a rough, handwritten map of Pittsburgh, Wasser testified, and what Seidemann described as possible escape routes.

The note read: “Maintain momentum, FBI slower overnight” and “Break CAM continuity.” Another line read: “3+ hours off camera, exit diff method (example: megabus, rail)” and a note that said “check reports for current situation.” The note also said: “bus to Penn Station,” “change hat” and “taxi… or cross the river.”

Wasser could also be heard on body camera footage saying she took a pair of clippers from Mangione’s bag.

Earlier in the body camera video — when she was still searching the bag at the McDonald’s with “The Twelve Days of Christmas” blaring in the background — prosecutors highlighted a conversation between officers and a supervisor about whether a warrant was needed. One officer noted that a warrant might be necessary “due to the severity of the matter,” but their supervisor intervened and said a warrant was not necessary because the incident was a “search incident to arrest” – a warrantless search conducted in an area in the immediate vicinity of the arrestee.

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

Smith recalled that an Altoona police lieutenant called her at 9:53 a.m. to tell her “he had the person responsible for the shooting of the CEO” at McDonald’s. Smith said she was in court at the time and interrupted proceedings to notify her boss, Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks.

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

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

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

Handwritten notes that police also discovered in Mangione’s backpack were not relevant to the local charges in Pennsylvania. Normally they would have been set aside and saved. The warrant allowed these items to be turned over as potential evidence in the New York case.

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

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