Fundraiser for health insurance CEO murder suspect raises more than $120,000 | Brian Thompson shooting

An online fundraiser created for the suspect arrested in the New York murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, has raised more than $120,000 for his legal defense.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested on 9 December in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in connection with Thompson’s killing outside a Manhattan hotel five days earlier.

He has since been charged with second-degree murder, forgery and three gun charges by prosecutors in New York. He faces separate charges in Pennsylvania for carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing “instruments of crime”.

Mangione’s defense attorney in Pennsylvania, Thomas Dickey, has said that his client will plead not guilty to the charges against him in Pennsylvania and he has been fighting extradition to New York. Mangione is being held in a Pennsylvania jail without bond.

As of Monday morning, an anonymous fundraiser titled “December 4th Legal Committee”– a reference to the date of the shooting – hosted on the GiveSendGo crowdsourcing platform had raised more than $125,000 meant to cover Mangione’s legal fees, with a target goal of $200,000.

The fundraiser states: “This is a preemptive legal fundraiser for the suspect allegedly involved in the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. We are not here to celebrate violence, but we do believe in the constitutional right of fair legal representation.”

The fundraiser added that all proceeds would be sent directly to Mangione, unless he rejected them, in which case they would be provided to other defendants with whom the campaign sympathizes.

GiveSendGo’s communications director, Alex Shipley, told NBC News in a statement that the crowdsourcing platform believed “every person is entitled to due process in a court of law – not in the court of public opinion.

“To be absolutely clear, we do not support or condone vigilante justice,” Shipley said, seeming to allude to the widespread belief that Thompson’s killing may have been linked to the largely privatized US healthcare industry’s routine denial of payments to many Americans.

“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. Our role is to give individuals and their communities the opportunity to fundraise for that defense, because true justice is served when everyone has equal access to a fair trial – regardless of the verdict.”

But not all crowdsourcing platforms are permitting fundraisers for Mangione.

NBC News recently reported that GoFundMe, one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms on the internet, removed campaigns supporting Mangione and was refunding the donors who contributed to those efforts.

A representative for GoFundMe told the news outlet: “GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes.”

Amazon has also removed merchandise from its website featuring the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose”, which some have reported were written on bullet casings found at the site of Thompson’s killing.