GoFundMe is yanking any and all campaigns supporting Luigi Mangione, but donations for his defense continue to pour in on other online platforms.
Mangione, who’s accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, has become somewhat of an internet sensation in the days since the shooting.
The health insurance executive had been visiting the city from Minnesota for an investor conference in Midtown Manhattan, where he was slated to give a speech later in the day.
Police said Thompson was walking from his hotel toward the venue when he was ambushed by a masked gunman around 6:45 a.m. He was shot in back and the leg and pronounced dead some 30 minutes later.
The brazen violence sparked a dayslong manhunt, which ended with Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s in Atloona, Pennsylvania.
He was allegedly found with a silencer and 3D-printed gun, which police said matched three shell casings found on the scene. The ammo had been marked with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” — echoing a phrase commonly used to describe the insurance industry’s tactics for delaying claims and maximizing profits.
In wake of the killing, social media has become flooded with rage-filled posts expressing frustration with the insurance industry. Many netizens reveled in Thompson’s death as others dubbed 26-year-old Mangione a hero.
Campaigns aimed at funding Mangione’s defense also started cropping up online, though they’ve since been scrubbed from the internet’s most popular fundraising platform.
“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” a spokesperson for the website said in a statement. “The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded.”
Content related to Mangione will however remain live on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo. One campaign, creating by a group calling themselves “‘The December 4th Legal Committee,” had raked in over $96,000 as of Saturday afternoon, with anonymous donations coming from all across the world.
“We believe every person is entitled to due process in a court of law — not in the court of public opinion,” Alex Shipley, GiveSendGo’s communications director, said in a statement to NBC News.
“To be absolutely clear, we do not support or condone vigilante justice,” she continued. “However, people have a constitutional right to a strong legal defense, and access to that defense should not be reserved only for the wealthy or those who fit a particular narrative.”
It’s unclear if Mangione will accept funds for his defense. Thomas Dickey, his attorney in Pennsylvania, previously said he felt uncomfortable accepting money from his client’s supporters.
The organizers of the December 4th Legal Committee said they had written a letter to Mangione in prison informing him of the fund and saying it could go toward “the defense of other political prisoners” should he choose not to accept the money.
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