Barney Davis
Published December 9, 2025 10:33pm
Updated December 9, 2025 10:47pm
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Luigi Mangione was caught eating a hash brown at McDonalds (Picture: AP)
Bodyworn camera footage shows the moment police finally caught up with Luigi Mangione after a nationwide manhunt.
The fugitive was caught eating a hash brown in McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days and 230 miles away from the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.
In newly released bodycam footage, officers ask him his name and pulling down his face mask, the suspect says: ‘Mark, yes sir, Mark Azari.’
He is told he has been reported as looking like someone ‘suspicious’ and he hands over a driving licence.
BREAKING: Bodycam Footage of Luigi Mangione’s arrest at McDonalds has just been released.Transparency is always important, so I'm glad to see this. pic.twitter.com/RZ1yAiDg3y
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) December 9, 2025
Moments after Luigi Mangione was handcuffed a police officer searching his backpack found a loaded gun magazine wrapped in a pair of underwear.
Luigi Mangione speaks to officers at a McDonald’s (Picture: AP)
The discovery, was recounted in court as Mangione fights to keep evidence out of his New York murder case, convinced police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, that he was the man wanted in the killing.
‘It’s him, dude. It’s him, 100%,’ an officer was heard saying at Mangione’s December 9, 2024 arrest, punctuating the remark with expletives as the officer combing the bag, Christy Wasser, held up the magazine.
Wasser, a 19-year Altoona police veteran, testified on the fourth day of a pretrial hearing as Mangione sought to bar prosecutors from using the magazine and other evidence against him, including a 9mm handgun and a notebook found during a subsequent bag search.
In a note to himself featuring a map to escape map he set himself several reminders, including to change hats and ‘pluck eyebrows.’
The McDonald’s manager who called police said she searched online for photos as Mangione sat in the restaurant and recognised his distinctive eyebrows
‘The only thing you can see is his eyebrows’, said the manager in her 911 call. Her name was not released.
‘He’s wearing a big, thick hoodie, so he kind of looks mid-weight. But the hoodie on, it makes him look heavier because he’s obviously cold.’
‘He’s by the back of our lobby by the bathroom,’ the worker said on the call, which was played as part of a pre-trial evidence hearing.
Luigi Mangione is facing a potential death penalty for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson (Picture: EPA)
Mangione’s lawyers argue the items should be excluded because police didn’t have a search warrant and lacked the grounds to justify a warrantless search. Prosecutors contend the search was legal and that police eventually obtained a warrant.
Wasser, testifying in full uniform, said Altoona police protocols require promptly searching a suspect’s property at the time of an arrest, in part for dangerous items.
On body-worn camera video played in court, Wasser was heard saying she wanted to check the bag for bombs before removing it from the McDonald’s. Despite that concern, she acknowledged in her testimony Monday that police never cleared the restaurant of customers or employees.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. He appeared in good health on Monday, pumping his fist for photographers and chatting with his lawyers as testimony resumed.
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The hearing, which was postponed Friday because of Mangione’s apparent illness, applies only to the state case. His lawyers are making a similar push to exclude the evidence from his federal case, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for his company’s investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind.
Police have said ‘delay, deny and depose’ were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione was arrested in Altoona, about 230 miles west of Manhattan, after police there received a 911 call about a McDonald’s customer resembling the suspect.
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