Luigi Mangione arrest sparks threats against police officers

Members of the Pennsylvania police department involved in the arrest of Luigi Mangione are reportedly facing death threats.

In a press conference Tuesday, Altoona Police Department Deputy Chief Derek Swope said the department, as well as locals involved in arresting the 26-year-old suspected shooter of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, are being harassed.

“This is clearly a very polarized case. We have received some threats against our officers and building here. We’ve started investigating some threats here against some citizens in our community. We’re taking all those threats seriously and doing all the follow-up we can with those,” Swope told the media.

Newsweek reached out to the Altoona PD via email for further comment.

Rookie Officer Tyler Frye, who has been working for the Altoona PD for nearly six months, and another officer were the first two responders to a call from a McDonald’s employee reporting a customer matching the widespread appearance of Thompson’s alleged killer.

Frye said in a press conference that he recognized Mangione “immediately” after asking him to pull down his blue medical mask.

“We just didn’t even think twice about it. We knew that was our guy,” Frye said Monday.

Mangione was initially arraigned Monday night in Pennsylvania on a weapons violation, forgery, and providing false identification. After his arraignment, New York prosecutors charged Mangione with murder for Thompson’s killing.

“I can’t say I was expecting it, by any means, but it feels good to get a guy like that off the street, especially starting my career this way,” Frye said. “It feels great.”

On Tuesday, during an extradition hearing at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, Mangione was denied bail and chose to fight extradition back to New York, initiating a potentially lengthy process.

He has 14 days to file a writ of habeas corpus and will remain in custody at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Huntingdon.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s office told Newsweek that it plans to pursue a governor’s warrant for his extradition to New York.

Peter Weeks, the district attorney in Blair County, said Tuesday that his office would “do what’s necessary” to get Mangione back to New York.

“We do not intend to delay this defendant’s extradition to New York, and we certainly—we’ve indicated to New York their prosecution should take precedence and then ours will follow,” Weeks said.

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