(New York) The defense of Luigi Mangione, accused of having killed in cold blood the boss of the largest American health insurer in 2024, focused on the conditions of his arrest on Thursday, looking for errors in the conduct of the police.
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The lawyers of this 27-year-old man have been trying for several days in a preliminary hearing in New York to quash evidence collected at the time of his arrest as well as his first statements to the police, denouncing procedural errors.
The stakes are high: it was at the time of his arrest in a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania that he was found carrying a pistol equipped with a silencer, corresponding to the cartridge cases found at the scene of the murder, and a notebook in which he expressed his hostility to the health insurance sector.
Brian Thompson, 50, CEO of the country’s leading health insurer United Healthcare, was shot dead on the morning of December 4, 2024 on a street in Manhattan, in the heart of New York, as he was leaving his hotel.
Thursday at the hearing, exactly one year after the murder, the court viewed images showing the police questioning the suspect in the McDonald’s about his identity, the reasons for his presence in this rural region and to find out if he had been to New York.
“I don’t know what you guys are doing, I’m just going to wait,” he replies after giving them a false identity, continuing to eat nonchalantly, with Christmas carols playing in the background.
Defenders of the young man, who for some has become the symbol of Americans’ anger against their health insurance system, criticize investigators in particular for having started to question him without informing him of his rights.
On the stand, one of the police officers, Tyler Frye, further admitted that members of the police continued to ask him questions even though he told them he refused to answer them.
PHOTO JANE ROSENBERG, REUTERS
Officer Tyler Frye admitted that law enforcement continued to ask the defendant questions when he told them he refused to answer them.
For the moment, no date has been set for a trial of Luigi Mangione, whose appearances in court are systematically accompanied by the presence of supporters, most often young women.
He faces up to life in prison in this statewide murder case. He also faces the death penalty in another proceeding at the federal level.
