(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The Minnesota Freedom Fund, which was praised and widely promoted by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020, assisted in the release of a repeat felon who was recently charged with murder.
Shawn Michael Tillman shot and killed a passenger on a train in St. Paul, and also has several other counts on his record—including indecent exposure, assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
He is now in custody with bail set at $2 million.
Harris aggressively supported and through her efforts helped finance the Freedom Fund on Twitter, praising their work of securing bail for criminals during the BLM riots of 2020.
The group raised $35 million in a matter of weeks with her assistance.
— b1joe (@b1joe) August 30, 2022
The felony after which Tillman was released was one of seven accounts of indecent exposure; however, that occurrence was in the presence of a minor.
Executive directors Mirella Ceja-Orozco and Elizer Darris said past convictions do play into their decision to fund those charged with crimes, but they did not list any of Tillman’s past convictions.
They defended the group’s decision to post Tillman’s bail in a statement.
“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,” the post read.
Tillman is not the only chronic offender who committed a murder after being released by the Freedom Fund.
A man who was charged with domestic abuse was released in 2021. A few weeks later, he murdered another man in a road rage incident.
The group also released Jaleel Stallings, who was charged with attempting murder after shooting at police during the BLM riots. His bail was set at $75,000.
The city of Minneapolis has seen record numbers of homicides, with 2021 breaking a record from the mid 1990s.
