(VitalNews.org) – A liberal New York City activist was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend last week, and now some of his friends have started a GoFundMe, but they’re not asking for donations for the dead man’s family, but for his girlfriend and themselves.
At 3:50 AM in the Bedfort-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Ryan Thoresen Carson was fatally stabbed. The horrific incident was captured on a nearby security camera and went viral online after its release.
Carson and his girlfriend, Claudia Morales, were sitting outside after returning from a wedding in Long Island when a young black man passed the couple. The couple then stood up and slowly walked in the same direction as the man, who began to kick over parked scooters and mopeds. Carson, trying to calm him, ended up provoking him instead and the man stabbed Carson. After threatening Morales (who stood there as Carson bled out on the sidewalk), the man left the scene.
Brian Dowling, 18, was quickly identified and arrested last Thursday. Dowling’s residence on Lafayette Avenue is close to the scene of the crime. He already had a criminal history and was charged with murder and illegal possession of the knife. Police were able to find the murder weapon in his apartment along with the same sweatshirt worn in the security camera footage.
A few days after the viral slaying, a group describing themselves as a “collective” of close friends of the victim, including Morales, started a GoFundMe on Carson’s behalf. Instead of requesting funds to pay for funeral expenses or other expenses for Carson’s family, the “collective” asked for donations to help ease “the burden and stress of this horrifying situation” for the fundraisers to “have space and time to grieve.”
The description said the funds would help them take “time off work to properly mourn” as “working-class people.” The news stirred criticism from conservatives who slammed the activists for taking advantage of their friend’s death to get out of going to work.
Meanwhile, the “collective” said Carson would have sympathized with Dowling and seen his murderer as someone “suffering from a lack of resources” in the community.
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