GoFundMe slaps down fundraisers popping up for suspected CEO killer
‘Legal defense for he who shall not be named wink, wink,’ one now-removed page read
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GoFundMe has shut down multiple pages created to support the accused murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A masked man fatally shot Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on December 4 before escaping out of the city, leading to a six-day manhunt for the gunman, which ended Thursday with the arrest of 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. He has been charged with murder.
The insurance executive’s death captivated the nation and sparked serious conversations about the state of health care in the U.S., with some even celebrating the execution as many shared stories of being denied coverage for care. Since his arrest, GoFundMe pages have cropped up in support of Mangione, and the fundraising site has been removing them. It’s not immediately clear how many pages the site took down.
A GoFundMe spokesperson told The Independent in a statement: “GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes. The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded.”
One page asked for funds to ensure that Mangione “gets a fair trial.”
“Legal defense for he who shall not be named wink, wink,” one page description said, according to Lawyer Herald.
“I am supporting Luigi Mangione,” another read. “I hope to get him the help he will need in this upcoming trial. He will need all the help he can get and I hope he can be comfortable dealing with this hardship in life.”
Police had been on the hunt for Thompson’s killer for nearly a week. Footage captured the gunman waiting for the CEO outside a Midtown hotel, before he popped out from behind a car and opened fire, striking the CEO in the back and leg. He fled the crime scene by e-bike through Central Park, before heading to Port Authority in a taxi, leading police to believe he had left the city by bus.
For days, investigators, scuba divers, and K-9 units looked for additional evidence in Central Park, where they eventually found what appeared to be the suspect’s backpack. The bag and its contents were sent in for forensic testing.
In the hours and days that followed, masked and unmasked photos of the gunman went viral on the internet as authorities pleaded for the public’s help with finding the suspect.
On Monday, six days into the search, a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recognized the suspected killer from the widely circulated photos.
Late Monday, Mangione, an Ivy Leage grad who comes from a prominent Baltimore family, was charged with murder in connection to Thompson’s death.