Patricia 🇺🇸@1109Patricia
Luigi Mangiona is still in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His state murder trial is now set to start September 8th.
Just yesterday, his lawyers formally told the judge they’ll argue he was under extreme emotional disturbance, basically admitting he did it but claiming a mental breakdown tied to his chronic back pain and frustrations with the healthcare system. If it works, it could knock murder down to manslaughter.
Prosecutors are pushing back hard, saying the evidence shows it was planned out months in advance. His federal trial got pushed to January 2027.
The killing happened early on December 4th, 2024, outside the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan. Surveillance video caught the masked shooter walking up behind Brian Thompson and firing, first hitting him in the leg, then the back, with a silenced gun. He left three shell casings engraved with “delay,” “deny,” and “depose,” a clear reference to insurance industry tactics.
He ditched a backpack in Central Park with a jacket, Monopoly money, and a silencer. A handwritten note criticizing the healthcare system was also found, later matched to a longer notebook in his possession.
The manhunt lasted five days. Cops released his photos from the scene and hostel footage. On December 9th, a customer at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, spotted a guy who looked just like him, same distinctive eyebrows, sitting alone in a mask, eating and using a laptop.
An employee called 911. Two officers showed up, asked him to lower his mask, and immediately recognized him. He gave a fake New Jersey ID for “Mark Rosario.” When they asked if he’d been to New York, he got visibly nervous and started shaking. They frisked him, he admitted his real name, and they arrested him on the fake ID charge.
In his backpack they found a 3D-printed gun with a 3D-printed suppressor, a loaded magazine, his real passport, cash, a laptop, and that notebook. Ballistics later matched the gun to the casings from the scene.
That’s how a sharp-eyed customer and a rookie cop ended the manhunt.
Nothing about this case appears to be anything but cold and calculated murder by someone that was determined to kill.
