INTRODUCING "Burden of Proof: Luigi Mangione"

0:00Brian Thompson:Today we've got something special to share with you. It's the first episode of a new podcast from our friends at ABC Audio and 2020 called Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione. You already know the story. In December 2024, shots rang out on a Manhattan sidewalk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead. Luigi Mangione has pled guilty to federal charges, but there's so much more to this story than what unfolded on the street that day. In the new podcast, Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer goes deep into this case and what it means. He'll unpack the murder itself, the two men at the heart of the story, and how this case has affected the conversation about health care in America.

0:49Brian Thompson:Whether you feel or think you know about the case of Luigi Mangione and Brian Thompson, this podcast will make you think more critically. Keep listening to Hear Episode 1, and if you like it, follow Burden of Proof Luigi Mangione on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen ad-free on Apple Podcasts by subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus. Again, that's burden of proof Luigi Mangione. Now, here's the episode.

1:23Brian Buckmire:Player number one, what is the address of your emergency? It's December 9th, 2024 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a small town between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. It's not really an emergency. I'm a manager at Plank Road McDonald's out here on the boulevard. A McDonald's manager says there's a guy eating a hash brown and steak McMuffin in the corner of her restaurant. He's sitting by the bathroom wearing a tan beanie and a blue medical mask. I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of that he looked like the CEO shooter from New York. Okay. The CEO shooter from New York. The one whose face has been all over the news for five days ever since he allegedly shot and killed an executive in Midtown Manhattan.

2:11Brian Buckmire:She says she's not sure it's him, but she's calling it in anyway because she says customers keep bringing it up to her. So they're just really upset and they're like coming to me and I was like, well, I can't approach them, you know? No, of course not. I could try to calm them down a little bit. And I'm like, guys, it's kind of hard to tell with his eyes and his eyebrows. I was like, I don't know what to do here, guys. No, you're fine. You're fine. Less than five minutes into the call, the operator tells the manager that police officers have been notified. Two patrolmen are on their way to the Plank Road McDonald's.

2:47Brian Buckmire:Just keep an eye on him. If he leaves, just give us a call back and let us know, okay? Alrighty, will do. Alright, thank you. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye. Officer Detweiler, a veteran on the force, said he spent the morning driving around Altoona with rookie cop Tyler Fry. Detweiler was training Fry in traffic stops when they got the call. They arrived at the McDonald's around 9.29 a.m. The officers head past the registers and booths, straight to the back corner of the restaurant. An area by the restroom where there's a lone individual with a mask against a white subway tile wall. There's a brown McDonald's bag and a napkin on the table in front of him.

3:36Brian Buckmire:Detweiler asked the customer to pull down his mask.

3:42Brian Buckmire:And he testified that almost immediately he recognized him as the individual wanted for the murder of Brian Thompson in New York City. The man tells the officers his name is Mark.

4:03Brian Buckmire:He hands him a driver's license. It says he's Mark Rosario from Maplewood, New Jersey. Please call the ID into dispatch and establish it's a fake. And this man isn't Mark Rosario from Maplewood, New Jersey. But you already knew that, didn't you? The man sitting up against that subway tile wall is identified by authorities as Luigi Mangione. The man accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk just five days earlier. Police and prosecutors say Mangione's their guy. He faces charges in both New York State and federal court. Mangione says he's innocent.

4:50Brian Buckmire:People have all kinds of opinions about this alleged killer. Is he a cold-blooded murderer? Or a hero vigilante? But we're going to start at the very beginning of this story. Before there was talk of heroes or villains. Before this case threw the spotlight onto America's broken healthcare industry. Before most people knew the names Brian Thompson or Luigi Mangione. We're going back to when this was just about finding a gunman who vanished in the middle of Manhattan.

5:22Brian Thompson:Follow Burden of Proof Luigi Mangione on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen ad-free on Apple Podcasts by subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus.