A man carrying a pizza wheel impersonated an FBI agent and tried to break Luigi Mangione out of jail, prosecutors say
Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images
- A man was arrested over a botched jailbreak attempt involving the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.
- The man is accused of pretending to be an FBI agent with a court order for Luigi Mangione's release.
- Mangioni has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial.
A man was arrested Wednesday night after pretending to be an FBI agent and attempting to break accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione out of jail, prosecutors said Thursday.
Mark Anderson showed up at the Metropolitan Detention Center jail claiming to have a court order to let Mangione walk free, federal prosecutors said in a criminal complaint.
After Bureau of Prisons officials asked Anderson to identify himself, he produced a Minnesota driver's license and said he had weapons in his backpack, according to the complaint. He also "displayed and threw at the BOP officers numerous documents," the complaint said.
Bureau of Prisons officials found a pizza cutter and barbecue fork in the bag, the complaint said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have accused Anderson of impersonating an FBI agent. He was expected to appear before a magistrate judge in a federal court on Thursday afternoon.
US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
An attorney for Anderson couldn't immediately be identified. An attorney for Mangione didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mangione has been jailed in the Metropolitan Detention Center while awaiting trial for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.
He is still in jail as of Thursday afternoon despite Anderson's alleged efforts, according to Bureau of Prison records.
Mangione is due in federal court in Manhattan on Friday morning, when a judge may rule on pending issues, including whether he will face the death penalty at his murder trial. US District Court Judge Margaret Garnett may also rule on whether prosecutors can show jurors key evidence from Mangione's December 9 arrest — including a 9 mm handgun and a journal police say they recovered from his backpack.
Garnett scheduled jury selection for the federal charges against Mangione for September. The Manhattan District Attorney's office has asked for a July trial date for its own murder trial against him. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the charges in both cases.
As the only remaining federal jail in New York City, the MDC holds several high-profile defendants, including former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The MDC also holds Oren and Tal Alexander, the luxury real estate brokers who are defendants in an ongoing rape trial in Manhattan.
In recent years, the MDC has also held Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
While judges and defense attorneys have routinely criticized the MDC for its poor conditions, it doesn't have a history of jailbreaks.
For more than two years, the jail successfully contained Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the Mexican drug lord who famously escaped twice from jails in Mexico, both times through tunnels dug underneath the buildings.