The Minnesota Freedom Fund on Thursday acknowledged it helped secure the release of Shawn Michael Tillman, who in May shot and killed a passenger on a rail platform in St. Paul. Harris promoted the Freedom Fund on Twitter during the George Floyd riots in 2020, helping the group raise $35 million in a matter of weeks, according to the Washington Post.
Freedom Fund executive directors Mirella Ceja-Orozco and Elizer Darris defended the group’s decision to post Tillman’s bail in a statement Thursday, saying, “It is neither just nor effective to respond to violence by denying bail and preemptively punishing people who are disproportionately poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous.”
Tillman’s criminal record includes multiple counts of indecent exposure, as well as assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, court records show. He is now in custody with bail set at $2 million.
When reached for comment, the Freedom Fund directed the Washington Free Beacon to its statement.