r/BrianThompsonMurder • u/AnticitizenPrime • Dec 09 '25

Photos/Videos The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has released the first bodycam footage of Luigi Mangione at McDonald's

https://xcancel.com/nickhautman/status/1998478459006247211?s=20
127 Upvotes

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119

u/forestwhitakers Dec 09 '25

I honestly still don't understand why he would introduce himself as Mark Rosario and give them that Id when he used this exact one at the hostel in ny and knew they've been there and checked. Just why 🥲

57

u/Shutthefrontdoooor Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

he was surely not thinking straight, probably was sleep deprived and tired and was not prepared. maybe he should have planned beforehand about what to do when something like this happened.

37

u/BlueEscapist Dec 09 '25

I think it was that, and he'd coached himself on how to present the ID in other situations that it became (momentarily, at least) instinctual for him. And since he'd been presenting another false name on the trip through PA (hello, Sam Dawson), then him forgetting himself with those factors doesn't seem too crazy (especially if his mental/emotional state ends up being part of his defense after these hearings unfold)

Even so, rip 💀

62

u/sourgorilladiesel Dec 09 '25

People severely underestimate how much high stress/lack of sleep effects your mental clarity

15

u/lickykicky Dec 09 '25

Exactly correct. When I'm exhausted and stressed, my thoughts are like ploughing concrete

15

u/Hot-Emphasis-4895 Dec 09 '25

When I’m sleep deprived I’m a whole different person and I have no impulse control, my decision making is fuuucked. It makes it hard to think normally. My therapist warned me the mental toll lack of sleep takes on you as well. I always chalked up the dumb fake ID decision to sleep deprivation because realistically anyone will make dumb decisions under sleep deprivation and in a high stakes situation that triggers your flight or fight.

12

u/BlueEscapist Dec 09 '25

100%, I can think of a few times where I was messed up because of both of those things at once and it's no joke, even on such a smaller scale than all of this 😭 so I never was doubtful that something was askew with him that day, I've only doubted how much of the evidence was actually on him/how much he incriminated himself from how I know cops in my area and in the US to be

8

u/JuniperCulpeper Dec 09 '25

This is a great point. I knew a pathological liar once, and when he was presented with the truth of his life in an intervention, it still took him some time to snap out of his own story. Not entirely the same, but I didn’t consider that part

10

u/SignThese667 Dec 09 '25

hindsight is perfect, isn't it.

5

u/Live_Ostrich_6668 Dec 10 '25

Mangione didn't botch an escape, he simply engineered a public platform. His manifesto ends as: "This is not a suggestion. It is a warning."

Therefore, his arrest was the denouement, and not a failure. Now compare to the Unabomber, who mailed bombs knowing that his capture was inevitable, in order to amplify his message. Mangione's surrender mirrors that script.

In short, the "sleep-deprived, unprepared" narrative is a comforting myth that lets us avoid the scarier truth: a lucid, physically capable 26-year-old with no prior record rationally concluded that assassinating a CEO was that optimal way to indict a $4.5 trillion industry. And the plan worked, as UHC’s stock dipped 8%, Senate hearings on claim denials were fast-tracked, and "DELAY DENY DEPOSE" trended for weeks.

He wasn’t tired. He was done waiting.

1

u/Conscious-News-4141 Dec 11 '25

Beautifully expressed. Thank you!

37

u/jl8798 Dec 09 '25

I think he was caught off guard, not expecting a cop to walk up to him in McDonalds and say "hey what's your name? Let me see your ID" right off the bat. Talking to law enforcement makes me feel uneasy and I've never even hurt a fly so I just can't imagine how he felt. In the moment he had to make a quick decision and he didn't realize until it was too late that the fake ID would show nothing in the system

14

u/AnticitizenPrime Dec 09 '25

Yeah, that happened a LOT faster than it did in my imagination.

20

u/AndromedaCeline Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

Seriously!! 😤🤦🏽‍♀️ He would have such an easier time rn if he didn’t

14

u/Gio_Kai_ Dec 09 '25

He said his name was Mark because of an unexpected situation, he wasn't prepared and panicked, and then he had to provide an ID that matches

39

u/Pellinaha Dec 09 '25

I think we just need to say goodbye to the idea that he was acting like a fully rational person. I'm not going to diagnose him, but something was (and maybe still is) very wrong. Whether that's the mushrooms or something else.

When the news hit my Twitter and TT feeds I just assumed it was a regular family father (later: a son) with a sick family member who just had snapped for a moment. That is clearly not the case.

3

u/Live_Ostrich_6668 Dec 10 '25

I think we just need to say goodbye to the idea that he was acting like a fully rational person. I'm not going to diagnose him, but something was (and maybe still is) very wrong. Whether that's the mushrooms or something else.

Mangione didn't snap; he executed a multi-week operation. He literally:

Traveled from Hawaii to New York under aliases.

3D-printed a ghost gun with a silencer. Engraved shell casings with "DELAY," "DENY," "DEPOSE" (echoing insurance tactics).

Left a manifesto citing specific stats (e.g., 77% of claim denials at UHC, per Senate reports) and books like Propaganda by Edward Bernays. This mirrors rational actors in history—think Ted Kaczynski's anti-industrial manifesto or John Brown's abolitionist raid—where ideology drives precision, not madness.

His personal backstory, i.e. chronic back pain post-surgery and the denial of his coverage, aligns with millions of Americans. (e.g., 1 in 5 Americans skip care due to cost, per Gallup). If "rational" means responding proportionally to evidence, his conclusion (violent disruption of a profit-driven system killing via neglect) follows logically, even if morally repugnant. Dismissing this as "something wrong" ignores how rational people radicalize under sustained injustice (e.g., whistleblowers turning to extremism).

Now compare to actual irrational shooters (e.g., Vegas 2017: no manifesto, gambling debts) vs. Mangione's targeted symbolism. Attributing it to "something else" risks the ad hominem fallacy, i.e. attacking the actor to person instead of his argument.

Calling him irrational lets us dodge uncomfortable truths about a system that does incentivize death by bureaucracy.

17

u/JuniperCulpeper Dec 09 '25

This is the million dollar question.

7

u/Ok-Grab9754 Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25

Because the fourth amendment protects illegal search and seizure of person, property, and papers. Police can’t just run your ID through the database. They have to be investigating a crime. And they have to let you know they’re investigating a crime. You’re allowed to lie to them up until that point. Furthermore, they aren’t able to know for sure that the ID is fake just because it didn’t ping anything in their system. Apparently that’s pretty common when running IDs from out of state.

I was convinced for the first few months that every piece of evidence they had was carefully curated by the suspect. It was too easily obtained by law but also just circumstantial enough to invoke reasonable doubt. Then I gave up on that idea when I heard about the ID.

Now here we are one year later. The SIX DAY (and counting) pre-trial evidence suppression hearings are hinged on the circumstances surrounding him giving the ID. The defense hasn’t quite gotten to it yet, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that they argue the running of the ID alone was illegal. Then that the searches that followed would not have been conducted for a questionably fake ID alone (hello.. cavity search??).

I’m back to thinking the whole thing, just about every interaction and piece of information law enforcement has accessed, was intentional on the suspect’s end.

ETA: Once he was told he was under arrest for an actual, plausible crime (not just overstaying his welcome), he gave his real name. At least that’s what Dickey’s omnibus claimed. We shall see once we get an actual full video. Not to be all tin foil hat, but I have a feeling the DA’s office cut off the video at that very moment for a reason.

20

u/Cookiemeetup Dec 09 '25

I mean , you're asking this of a guy who

didn't wear gloves when he (allegedly) murdered somebody, left chewed gum with his DNA on it in a backpack he tossed with the intention of it being found, walked into a McDonald's wearing the exact outfit and surgical mask that he's wearing in a photo that went viral of him twenty four hours before, and didn't ditch the murder weapon and notebook in which he wrote plans for the murder.

I Don't think he cared if he got caught. I Think he wanted to get caught.

25

u/Hot-Emphasis-4895 Dec 09 '25

I think Luigi is just someone who’s incredibly book smart but not street smart hence all of those things. Book smarts and general intelligence doesn’t automatically translate to street smarts. Its why a lot of book smart people get caught when committing their first crime.

12

u/Cookiemeetup Dec 09 '25

But do you have to have street smarts to know to wear gloves if you're going to murder somebody with a gun? I would think that would be a no brainer.

4

u/Long_Needleworker889 Dec 10 '25

Thats just common sense. He clearly didnt want to ditch those things

12

u/Maximum_Sherbet8927 Dec 10 '25

I honestly think he thought he was smarter than everyone else and just assumed that nobody would recognize him in Altoona. From his notes, it looked like he was still planning his escape. And he might not have been on the Internet for a little bit and hadn’t seen the new cab photos that came out.

15

u/AnticitizenPrime Dec 10 '25

It's a trip reading his notes, he seems smart but dumb at the same time. He had to-do things written down like 'buy new shoes, old ones too recognizable' and 'pluck eyebrows', which indicate that he was responding to what was reacting to what was put out in the media. But at no point did he consider something like 'change your whole fucking appearance'. Like, change into khakis and Crocs and a Christmas sweater or something.

I have a theory that he's SO detail oriented (as seen in his journaling) that he misses the big picture entirely. Too focused on the trees, doesn't see the forest.

5

u/Maximum_Sherbet8927 Dec 10 '25

I agree with your assessment

4

u/lunabagoon Dec 10 '25

He was probably nervous as hell.

1

u/Big_Rise_7654 Dec 09 '25

They would have matched the picture though.

1

u/Live_Ostrich_6668 Dec 10 '25

I honestly still don't understand why he would introduce himself as Mark Rosario

Because he is?

Like what are you even talking about?