Lead Mangione detective says silencer found in case was unlike anything hed seen in 25 years

A retired NYPD detective who investigated the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson said in a new interview that the silencer recovered is unlike anything he had previously encountered, underscoring what investigators say was the sophistication and planning behind the slaying.Retired NYPD Detective Sgt.John Griffin told “Dateline” Friday that in 25 years on the job, he’d never seen one before.“It had something on the front, like a homemade suppressor or silencer-type thing,” said the detective, who was part of the NYPD’s major crimes unit.Luigi Mangione, 28, is accused of assassinating Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota who was gunned down on video outside a Manhattan Hilton hotel on the morning of a planned investor conference on Dec.

4, 2024.Pat Diaz, a private investigator who spent 30 years as a homicide detective in the Miami area, told Fox News Digital Monday that silencers were a big part of the violent “Cocaine Cowboys” and mafia era of the 1980s and 1990s.“Usually on major drug killings, they’d just drop the weapon there, because most of the time they were untraceable,” he said.“It wasn’t unusual in the ’80s, ’90s, to come up with a firearm with a silencer on it — especially in Miami.”Stricter laws diminished their use in more recent decades, but they are making a resurgence, he said.The 3D-printed version shows some capability with mechanical engineering as well as intent, he added.“It shows his frame of mind,” Diaz said.

“Insanity is out the door, because he was of sound mind to be able to engineer and design a silencer.”Typically, a printed device requires multiple components to be created and then assembled — then fitted to the weapon safely.The former Ivy Leaguer has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in connection with the case and could face life in prison without parole if convicted on the most serious federal charges.In New York, he faces a maximum pe...