Luigi Mangione’s lawyers are alleging that Pennsylvania law enforcement officials unlawfully obtained his DNA by offering him food and a soda at a police station on the day of his arrest. They claim that Mangione was illegally detained at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on December 9, asserting that the officers lacked probable cause, failed to inform him of his rights, and neglected to identify him as a suspect for at least 20 minutes before a large group of officers surrounded him.
According to court documents filed last week, Mangione’s legal team argues that since the initial arrest was deemed unlawful, any subsequent statements or evidence collected by the police that day, including his DNA extracted from the food and drink items at the station, should also be considered illegal. The lawyers maintain that the purpose of providing Mangione with food and beverages was to surreptitiously obtain his DNA for investigative purposes.
In an effort to exclude all evidence obtained during the arrest from the upcoming trial, Mangione’s attorneys are seeking to have the charges in the Pennsylvania case dismissed on the basis of the allegedly unlawful arrest. Mangione was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania after a search, following the fatal shooting of healthcare executive Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on December 4. He is facing charges related to weapons possession, forgery, and false identification in Altoona, as well as more serious state and federal charges in New York for Thompson’s murder. Mangione has entered a plea of not guilty in all instances. Please stay tuned for further updates on this developing story.
