GoFundMe is hosting a fundraising page for a Minneapolis gunman who was killed by the police after firing into his neighbor’s apartment, after deleting a page set up to raise money for a New York City bodega clerk who stabbed an attacker in what he says was self-defense.
The family of deceased Minnesota shooter Andrew “Tekle’’ Sundberg, who was killed by cops Saturday after a six-hour standoff in the neighborhood, had raised $20,500 on the platform by Monday.
However, last Wednesday the company removed the legal defense fund page for bodega worker Jose Alba, who was initially jailed at Riker’s Island for using a knife to defend himself from a violent attacker, a story which surveillance video corroborates.
“Our terms of service prohibit fundraising for the legal defense of a violent crime. At this time, the fundraiser has been removed and all donors have been refunded,” GoFundMe said of its justification for taking down Alba’s page Thursday.
Alba’s page had collected around $20,000 when it was removed, the Daily Mail reported.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday dropped all charges against Alba, which included second-degree murder. The charging decision came after intense backlash from bodega workers and owners as well as negative coverage in the city’s tabloids, most notably the New York Post, which dedicated multiple front pages to the case.
Bragg first requested Alba’s bail be set at $500,000 before it was lowered to $50,000 after his office received backlash from the community. Alba was later released on a $5,000 bail bond.
Fransisco Marte, the president of the Bodega and Small Business Group who put up his house to cover Alba’s bail, said at a Wednesday press conference at City Hall that Alba has been a law-abiding, hard-working citizen since he immigrated to the U.S. Alba “was a victim in this incident and should never have been charged,” he said.
The bodega-worker representatives leading the press conference said they had been negotiating with Bragg to get the murder charges dropped. Attendee Frank Garcia, the head of the National Association of Latino State Chamber of Commerce, even promised to call for Bragg’s removal if he refused to drop all charges.
Meanwhile, Sundberg, whose parents said had been struggling with mental health issues, last Wednesday fired his weapon through the wall of an apartment where a mother was cooking her two children dinner, leaving bullet holes in her front door, walls and above her bathroom sink, photos show.
GoFundMe told the Post Monday that Sundberg’s fundraiser was acceptable because it states that donations will go toward funeral, food, and family expenses, rather than legal defense for a “violent crime.”
“Fundraisers for these types of expenses are allowed under GoFundMe’s terms of service,” the company said.
The Minneapolis police union explained its decision to shoot Sunberg last week, saying that “to prevent death or great bodily harm to another, officers used deadly force.”
On Saturday, the mother, Arabella Foss-Yarbrough, confronted a group of Black Lives Matter protesters, who congregated on her street to commemorate and demand justice for Sundberg. An exasperated Foss-Yarbrough berated the activists for defending a man who endangered her children.
“This is not a George Floyd situation. George Floyd was unarmed. This is not OK.” Foss-Yarbrough bellowed. “He tried to kill me in front of my kids.”