He has not been charged with the killing of Mr Thompson, officials said on Monday.
Detectives from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) have travelled to Pennsylvania to question Mangione.
Here’s what we know about him so far…
Arrest
According to officials from the NYPD, Mangione was arrested in Altoona on Monday after a tip-off from a McDonald’s employee who recognised him from the police appeals.
Image: Luigi Mangione, 26, was found at a McDonald’s, after a worker recognised him and called the police
Altoona is around 230 miles to the west of New York and in the state of Pennsylvania.
According to police, he had a silencer and a gun “both consistent with the weapon used in the murder”.
They said the gun appeared to be a “ghost gun” – a type of weapon that can be assembled at home from parts and without a serial number – and that it was possibly made using a 3D printer.
Mangione also had a fake New Jersey ID – with the name Mark Rosario – matching a document used by the suspect to check into a hostel in the city before the attack, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference on Monday.
Image: Luigi Mangione had a fake New Jersey ID
He was found carrying a “handwritten document” which Ms Tisch said spoke “to both his motivation and mindset”.
NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said that from the document, it appeared the suspect had “some ill-will towards corporate America”.
Background
According to police, Mangione was born and raised in the state of Maryland and has links to San Francisco in California and Hawaii’s capital Honolulu.
His social media lists him as being from Towson, a well-to-do area to the north of the city of Baltimore. He is said to have attended Gilman school – a private all-boys school in the city.
Image: Luigi Mangione Pic: LinkedIn
Fees cost up to $37,000 (£29,000) depending on the age of the student and the school boasts an impressive list of alumni, including businessmen, NFL stars and former state senators.
After graduating in 2016, it appears Mangione went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania.
According to his social media, he studied computer science and during his time there launched a gaming research group named UPGRADE (UPenn Game Research and Development Environment).
He later co-founded his own computer game company, which focused on small, simplistic games.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mangione moved to California in 2020, where he worked for a digital retailing website for new and used cars.
Magione lists himself as from Honolulu on his LinkedIn page, while pictures shared on his public Instagram page show him on the island of Hawaii.
What about his social media presence?
Mangione appears to have an active social media presence.
One account, appearing under his name and picture on the X platform, regularly shares and reposts think pieces, with frequent topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), philosophy, and the future of humanity in a world of ever-more powerful technology.
Image: Luigi Mangione. Pic: Facebook
The account praised the book What’s Our Problem? by the popular American author Tim Urban – who often addresses such topics – in January 2024 saying he “believed it would go down in history as the most important philosophical text of the early 21st century”.
While the account does address political issues, it seemingly does not express views on the American healthcare and insurance system.
In another account matching his name and photograph on the user-generated book review site Goodreads, he appeared to give a four-star review to a text called Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski.
The piece, which rallied against technological advancement, became known as the Unabomber Manifesto after its author began a nearly 20-year mail bombing campaign which he said was designed to protect nature.
Three people were killed and dozens others injured in the bombing campaign, which ended with his arrest in 1996.
In the review, the account seemingly run by Mangione wrote: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.
“‘Violence never solved anything’ is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.”
Brian Thompson shooting
Brian Thompson, 50, was the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare – the fourth-largest public company in the United States.
Image: Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson.
Pic: Business Wire/AP
He was targeted by what experts claim was a “seasoned, professional killer”, who shot him on 4 December as he was walking into a Manhattan hotel where his company was holding a conference.
Investigators said last week the words “defend”, “deny”, and “depose” were written on the cases of bullets found at the scene, which are similar to the title of a book that criticises health insurance companies.
The shooting happened at 6.45am on Wednesday 4 December – just before sunrise.
Mr Thompson was in New York City for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investors conference, which was due to start at 8am.
Image: Police shared this picture of the suspect following the shooting. Pic: NYPD
As he walked towards the entrance of the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue, in Manhattan’s midtown, a gunman appeared from two parked cars behind him.
The suspect drew his weapon and fired at least three times at close range – around 15ft (4.6m) away from him on the pavement.
Mr Thompson was shot in the back and the calf and died from his injuries.
Image: A police officer stands near the scene where the CEO of United Healthcare Brian Thompson was shot. Pic: Reuters
UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the US and manages insurance for employers and state and federally funded programmes.
It is the fourth largest public company in the country – behind Walmart, Amazon, and Apple.
US vice president JD Vance has met with Pope Francis.
The “quick and private” meeting took place at the Pope’s residence, Casa Santa Marta, in Vatican City, sources told Sky News.
The meeting came amid tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration over the US president’s crackdown on migrants and cuts to international aid.
No further details have been released on the meeting between the vice president and the Pope, who has been recovering following weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.
Mr Vance, who is in Rome with his family, also met with the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The Vatican said there had been “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.
According to a statement, the two sides had “cordial talks” and the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.
“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners,” the statement said.
Francis has previously called the Trump administration’s deportation plans a “disgrace”.
Mr Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, has cited medieval-era Catholic teaching to justify the immigration crackdown.
The pope rebutted the theological concept Mr Vance used to defend the crackdown in an unusual open letter to the US Catholic bishops about the Trump administration in February, and called Mr Trump’s plan a “major crisis” for the US.
“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” the Pope said in the letter.
Mr Vance has acknowledged Francis’s criticism but said he would continue to defend his views. During an appearance in late February at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he did not address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there were “things about the faith that I don’t know”.
While he had criticised Francis on social media in the past, recently he has posted prayers for the pontiff’s recovery.
The Democrat senator who flew to meet the man wrongly deported to El Salvador has said photos of them with margaritas were staged by officials working for the country’s president.
Chris Van Hollen added that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from the US last month, told him he has been moved from a notorious high-security prison in El Salvador to a detention centre with better conditions.
The deportation of Mr Garcia has become a flashpoint in the US, with Democrats casting it as a cruel consequence of Donald Trump’s disregard for the courts, while Republicans have criticised Democrats for defending him and argued his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.
Mr Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, is being detained in the Central American country despite the US Supreme Court calling on the White House to facilitate his return home.
Trump officials have said Mr Garcia has ties to the violent MS-13 gang. However, Mr Garcia’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence, and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Mr Van Hollen flew to El Salvador and met with Mr Garcia this week in an effort to help secure his return to America.
Image: Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, seen in a photo shared by El Salvador’s president. Pic: Nayib Bukele on X
Image: Van Hollen (right) says margaritas were later brought to the table. Pic: Press Office Senator Van Hollen/AP
Speaking to reporters at Washington Dulles International airport after returning to the US on Friday, Mr Van Hollen said: “As the federal courts have said, we need to bring Mr Abrego Garcia home to protect his constitutional rights to due process. And it’s also important that people understand this case is not just about one man.
“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.”
Mr Van Hollen added the Trump administration is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country” in foreign prisons “without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order”.
Don’t let the PR battle cloud the real human story
What began as the plight of a Salvadoran man wrongly deported from the US to a notorious high-security prison in El Salvador has become a much broader debate.
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia now ranges from the extremely serious – questions over the rule of law, due process and a potential constitutional crisis – to the more curious matter of tequila-based cocktails.
There is a public relations battle going on over the images which emerged of Mr Abrego Garcia meeting Maryland Senator Chris van Hollen at a hotel in San Salvador.
In the first photos which were made public, on the social media account of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, an ally of Donald Trump, the two men had cocktail glasses in front of them which he said were margaritas.
But when Senator van Hollen posted his account of the meeting, those glasses had vanished. So what’s this all about, and why does it matter?
The senator has now given his version of events, saying the glasses were placed there by an El Salvador government official to mock concerns about the conditions in the country’s prison – a photo op aimed at shifting the narrative around Mr Abrego Garcia’s detention in El Salvador.
Mr van Hollen also revealed El Salvador officials initially wanted the meeting to take place next to a swimming pool, to give an even more tropical backdrop to the encounter.
But at the end of the day, it’s not just about images, it’s not about public relations, it’s not even about margaritas. It’s about a 29-year-old father of three, detained in El Salvador, despite having never gone through due process in the US.
The senator also revealed Mr Garcia was brought from a detention centre to his hotel after initial requests to meet or speak with him were denied.
Mr Van Hollen said Mr Garcia told him he was “traumatised” after being detained at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, but he had been moved to a “different facility” with better conditions nine days ago.
The senator said Mr Garcia told him he was worried about his family and that thinking about them was giving him “the strength to persevere” and to “keep going” under awful circumstances.
Mr Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, was at the news conference and wiped away tears as Mr Van Hollen spoke of her husband’s desire to speak to her.
Earlier, Mr Van Hollen had posted photos of himself meeting with Mr Garcia.
Image: Chris Van Hollen speaks at Washington Dulles International Airport. Pic: AP
It came before El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared his own images of the meeting, which he claimed showed the pair “sipping margaritas” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.
In an apparent sarcastic remark, Mr Bukele wrote that Mr Garcia had “miraculously risen” from the “death camps”.
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Giving an account of what he says happened when the photos were taken, Mr Van Hollen said: “We just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee.
“And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice. And I don’t know if it was salt or sugar round the top, but they looked like margaritas.
“If you look at the one they put in front of Kilmer, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me in front of me to try to make it look, I assume like he drank out of it.
“Let me just be very clear. Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us.”
He added that people can tell he is telling the truth because if someone had sipped from one of the glass there would be a “gap” where the “salt or sugar” had disappeared.
Mr Van Hollen said the image shows the “lengths” the El Salvadorian president will go to “deceive people about what’s going on”.
“It also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and [President Trump] will go to, because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride.”