McDonald’s customer speaks out about moment he spotted NYC shooting suspect Luigi Mangione in fast food joint
The McDonald’s regular, identified as Larry, was in the Altoona branch on Monday when the 26-year-old suspect walked through the door
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A McDonald’s customer thought his friend was joking after they spotted Luigi Mangione in the Pennsylvania fast food joint.
The McDonald’s regular, identified only as Larry, was in the Altoona branch on Monday with a group of friends when the 26-year-old, suspected of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, walked through the door.
“One of my friends, and I thought he was kidding, when the shooter — I’m assuming was the shooter who they made the arrest on — came in. [My friend] made a comment – ‘That looks like the shooter from New York,’” Larry told Fox Digital.
“The group of us thought it was more of a joke, and we were kidding about it,” Larry continued. “But as it turned out, it was him.”
Mangione ordered some hash browns, new photos revealed, and then headed to the back of the restaurant.
“I passed him whenever I left, I left and went to church, [then] came back because I heard there was an arrest,” Larry added.
One of Larry’s friends noticed that Magione’s backpack and jacket resembled the ones in the surveillance images circulated by the New York Police Department, he said.
The local added that he thinks Mangione must have heard the group talking about him because the McDonald’s staff worker who called the police also overheard them.
“And the worker, she heard us talking, he had to have heard us,” Larry said.
Following the suspect’s arrest, the McDonald’s branch was targeted by “review bombing” that caused Google to step in.
“This location has rats in the kitchen that will make you sick and your insurance isn’t going to cover it,” one spoof restaurant reviewer wrote in response.
“Do not stop here if you are an American Hero. They will sell you out,” another person wrote.
Others likewise derided the venue as a haven for “snitches.”
Google said in a statement that it was taking down the reviews, saying they “violate our policies and have been removed.”
Google’s policy dictates that all review contributions “should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business” and that “content that has been posted from multiple accounts to manipulate a place’s rating” will be removed.
New York prosecutors filed murder charges against Mangione hours after he faced gun crimes charges in Pennsylvania, according to a court docket.
He allegedly possessed a ghost gun, a suppressor, “multiple fraudulent IDs,” and a handwritten 262-word manifesto that slammed the health care system, authorities said.
The suspect is currently being held without bond in a Pennsylvania jail and will be extradited to New York to face the murder charge, according to NYPD Chief Detective Joseph Kenny.
An extradition hearing is scheduled to take place today at the Blair County Courthouse.