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Photos showing the arrest of accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione have been released in court documents as his defense team wrestles with Justice Department prosecutors over whether the potential death penalty and top charges against him should stand.
The images, which appear to be still frames taken from bodycam video, show Mangione eating alone in a corner of the restaurant while wearing a medical mask, him pulling the mask down as he speaks with an officer, and then him being placed in handcuffs.
Mangione’s lawyers have asked a federal judge to suppress evidence collected during his arrest, and they have accused arresting officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania, of improperly seizing evidence from his backpack and questioning him before reading his Miranda rights.
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A Justice Department lawyer countered that the search of his backpack was justified because police had reasonable safety concerns, and the only pre-Miranda statement prosecutors plan to use against him is when he allegedly lied about his name in response to a question that did not require the Miranda warning.
Thompson, 50, was a father of two from Minnesota. He was visiting New York City for an investor conference at the time of his murder.
Surveillance video shows him walking outside a Manhattan hotel on his way to the conference when a masked man approached from behind and opened fire.
Mangione allegedly fled the area on a bicycle and then took a bus out of town.
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Five days later, customers at the Altoona McDonald’s recognized him from a wanted poster and called police. They arrested him at the scene and allegedly recovered the murder weapon in his bag, along with writings critical of the health insurance industry.
Mangione’s lawyers have rejected the term “manifesto” to describe his journals.
While some supporters have embraced him as an anti-capitalist crusader, Mangione’s stops at a Manhattan Starbucks and the Pennsylvania McDonald’s both played a role in his capture, according to prosecutors.
Mangione is accused of “meticulously” planning the murder with the motive of igniting a “public discussion about the healthcare industry,” according to the DOJ.
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New York prosecutors said Mangione plotted to travel to New York; find Thompson, a Minnesota resident in town for UnitedHealthcare’s investor conference; and kill him. Mangione allegedly shot Thompson from behind with a 3D-printed ghost gun and suppressor.
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