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(NEW YORK) — As Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty Monday to state murder and terrorism charges in the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, supporters of the suspect continued to donate tens of thousands of dollars for a defense fund established for him, leaving law enforcement officials worried Mangione is being turned into a martyr.

Several online defense funds have been created for Mangione by anonymous people, including one on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo that as of Tuesday morning had raised over $200,000.

The GiveSendGo defense fund for the 26-year-old Mangione was established by an anonymous group calling itself “The December 4th Legal Committee,” apparently in reference to the day Mangione allegedly ambushed and gunned down Thompson in Midtown Manhattan as the executive walked to his company’s shareholders conference at the New York Hilton hotel.

“We are not here to celebrate violence, but we do believe in the constitutional right to fair legal representation,” the anonymous group said in a statement.

The crowdfunding campaign prompted donations from thousands of anonymous donors across the country, many of them leaving messages of support for Mangione, including one person who called themselves “A frustrated citizen” and thanked Mangione for “sparking the awareness and thought across this sleeping nation.”

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for GiveSendGo said the company “operates with a principle of not preemptively determining guilt or innocence.”

“Our platform does not adjudicate legal matters or the validity of causes. Instead, we allow campaigns to remain live unless they violate the specific terms outlined in our Terms of Use. Importantly, we do allow campaigns for legal defense funds, as we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to access due process,” the GiveSendGo spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added, “We understand the concerns raised by such campaigns and take these matters seriously. When campaigns are reported, our team conducts a thorough review to ensure they comply with our policies. While other platforms may choose a different approach, GiveSendGo’s core value is to provide a space where all individuals, no matter their situation, can seek and receive support, with donors making their own informed decisions.”

Other crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe have taken down campaigns soliciting donations for Mangione’s defense.

“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the crowdfunding website said in a statement. “The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded.”

Amazon and Etsy have removed from their websites merchandise featuring Mangione, including T-shirts and tote bags reading “Free Luigi” and the phrase “Deny, Defend, Depose,” words police said were etched in the shell casings discovered at the scene of Thompson’s homicide.

“Celebrating this conduct is abhorrent to me. It’s deeply disturbing,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told ABC News senior investigative reporter Aaron Katersky in an interview last week. “And what I would say to members of the public, people who, as you described, are celebrating this and maybe contemplating other action, that we will be vigilant and we will hold people accountable. We are at the ready.”

When Mangione appeared in court Monday for his arrangement, more than two dozen young women, who had waited in the frigid cold outside the courthouse, said they were there to support the defendant.

Most of the women wore face masks and a few appeared visibly emotional as Mangione entered the courtroom.

“This is a grave injustice, and that’s why people are here,” one of the women, who said she arrived at the courthouse at 5 a.m., told ABC News.

Other supporters outside the courthouse chanted, “Free, free Luigi” and “Eat the rich,” and held signs reading, “People over profits” and “Health over wealth.”

Manhattan grand jury indicted Mangione last week on 11 charges, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism. Mangione is also facing federal charges that could get him the death penalty if convicted.

Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, raised concerns in court Monday that her client is being used by police and New York City Mayor Eric Adams as “political fodder.”

Angifilo also slammed last week’s extradition of Mangione back to Manhattan to face charges, calling Adams’ presence amid the massive display of force used in the transfer “the biggest staged perp walk I have seen in my career.”

“What was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference — that is utterly political,” she said, before referencing the mayor’s own criminal case. “The New York City mayor should know more than anyone the presumption of innocence.”

Retired FBI special agent Richard Frankel said suspects have received unsolicited support in previous politically charged violent crimes.

“We saw it with the Unabomber,” said Frankel, an ABC News contributor, referring to Ted Kaczynski, the mathematician-turn-domestic terrorist who blamed technology for a decline of individual freedom and mailed handcrafted explosives to targeted individuals between 1978 and 1995.

Frankel said Eric Rudolph, who detonated a bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympic Games and carried out three additional bombings as he eluded capture for five years, also attracted supporters.

“In my opinion, they’re supporting individuals who have committed potentially terrorist acts, but it’s a politically charged act,” Frankel said.

Referring to the Thompson killing, Frankel added, “You can be up in arms about the health care industry, but you can’t threaten or actually hurt members of the health care industry.”

Most recently, Marine veteran Daniel Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was acting erratically on a New York City subway, after supporters donated more than $3 million to his legal defense fund.

Law enforcement officials have expressed concern that Mangione is being turned into a martyr. Someone this week pasted “wanted posters” outside the New York Stock Exchange naming other executives.

A recent bulletin released by the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, a multi-agency law enforcement intelligence-sharing network based in Philadelphia, included a photo of a banner hanging from an overpass reading, “Deny, Defend, Depose,” which are the same words etched on shell casings police said were recovered from the Thompson homicide scene.

“Many social media users have outright advocated for the continued killings of CEOs with some aiming to spread fear by posting ‘hit lists,'” the bulletin, obtained by ABC News, reads.

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(SANTA CRUZ, Calif.) — A powerful storm pummeling the West Coast churned up waves as high as 60 feet, killing one man, sweeping another out to sea and prompting multiple rescues when a pier collapsed in Santa Cruz, California, authorities said.

A series of storms leading into Christmas are expected to continue to pound the West Coast on Tuesday with heavy rain, gusty winds and giant ocean waves.

On Monday, the wild weather turned deadly in Santa Cruz when a large wave hit a man, trapping him beneath debris at a beach, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

The death unfolded around 11:30 a.m. local time at Sunset State Beach in Santa Cruz, about 75 miles south of San Francisco. First responders managed to pull the man from the water, but he was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the sheriff’s office said. The man’s name was not immediately released.

The storm also caused the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf pier to partially collapse, according to the sheriff’s office. Three men, all members of a city crew working on the pier at the time, were thrown into the ocean, according to the sheriff’s office.

Lifeguards sprang into action and rescued two of the men, while the third worker swam to shore on his own. None of the men were seriously injured, according to Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley.

The incident lopped off a 150-foot section at the end of the pier, which was undergoing a $4 million restoration. Large chunks of the pier were left floating in the water.

Video showed one worker stranded on a piece of the pier floating in the water being rescued by a first responder on a jet ski.

The sheriff’s office also issued an evacuation order Monday afternoon for oceanfront residents along an approximately 3-mile stretch of shoreline just south of Santa Cruz, citing large swells and high tides.

The National Weather Service in the Bay Area warned that “dangerous and life-threatening beach conditions” are forecast for along the Pacific Coast through Tuesday, including rough seas and breaking waves up to 60 feet.

A separate rescue attempt occurred Monday near Monterey, where authorities believe high surf likely pulled a man into the ocean. The incident happened at Marina State Beach along the Monterey Bay around noon, according to the Marina Police Department.

“Bystanders attempted to assist the individual; however, due to extremely large waves and strong currents, their rescue efforts were unsuccessful,” police said in a statement.

Marina police officers, firefighters, U.S. Coast Guard and the California Highway Patrol launched an extensive search for the man using boats and aircraft, but were forced to suspend the rescue operation when weather conditions became too dangerous, police said. The man, who was not immediately identified, remained missing Tuesday morning.

At the time of the search, the National Weather Service estimated waves in the Santa Cruz area to be 25 to 50 feet, according to police.

High surf warnings were issued up and down the West Coast from Washington to Southern California.

The Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office said first responders also made water rescues in a harbor near Capitola, about 4 miles south of Santa Cruz.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Nine states from Virginia to Maine are under snow alerts on Christmas Eve morning as a band of snow moves through the Northeast, bringing treacherous driving conditions.

A white Christmas?

The National Weather Service considers it a white Christmas if there’s 1 inch or more of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning.

Boston is getting its first white Christmas in five years and New York City could see its first white Christmas in 15 years.

Christmas Eve forecast

On Christmas Eve morning, the heaviest snow is hitting upstate New York and northern New England where locally more than 1 foot of snow is possible.

A coating to 1 inch of snow is possible along Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston on Tuesday morning.

A winter weather advisory has been issued for DC and Philadelphia due to the dangerous combination of a glaze of ice with a potential coating of snow.

By Tuesday afternoon, the snow will end and the sun will come out in the Northeast, ushering in a dry Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.

Meanwhile, a powerful storm system in the Pacific Ocean is producing extreme waves that are only seen every few years on the West Coast.

Waves could reach 60 feet in Northern California and southern Oregon and could reach 25 feet in Southern California on Tuesday morning.

This storm is bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms with lightning to Northern California, including the San Francisco Bay area.

Some of the rain could reach Southern California, including Los Angeles, by the evening.

Christmas Day forecast

On Christmas Day, temperatures will reach 35 degrees in New York City, 39 degrees in Chicago, 53 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 59 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Temperatures will be slightly below normal in the Northeast and slightly above normal in the Midwest.

Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for Christmas Day from Texas to Mississippi to Tennessee.

Six to 12 inches of snow is forecast for the higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains, from Taos, New Mexico, to Big Sky, Montana.

It’ll be a rainy Christmas afternoon in Oregon and Washington, with snow in the Cascade mountain range.

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A “technical issue” briefly disrupted American Airlines flights nationwide early on Tuesday, the airline said, at the start of a busy Christmas Eve for travelers around the country.

The Federal Aviation Administration said American requested a ground stop for all its flights. An hour later, American said flights were again beginning to board and the FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop.

“We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights,” the airline wrote in a post to X.

The post added, “Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination.” Replying to questions from other social media users, the airline said it was not able to estimate how long the fix would take.

The airline wrote that it didn’t yet have a “timeframe” but that “they’re trying to fix it in the shortest possible time.”

In a statement sent to ABC News, the airline added, “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

The disruption will be unwelcome for a record number of Americans expected to travel across this holiday season. The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen nearly 40 million travelers from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2 — a 6.2% increase from 2023.

American Airlines said it was expecting Dec. 27 and Dec. 20 to be its busiest and second-busiest days, respectively, during its holiday period, which began on Dec. 18.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Ayesha Ali, Clara McMichael and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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As Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Manhattan Criminal Court this morning, protesters from all walks of life assembled outside the courthouse to show their support for the alleged killer.

While their reasons to bear the 11-degree weather varied — including personal healthcare issues, concerns about inequality and distrust of the media — they were seemingly united in their support for the 26-year-old whose alleged actions have ignited a nationwide conversation about healthcare.

Pushing her 1-year-old son, Emmanuel, in a stroller, 37-year-old Alicia Thomas from the South Bronx said her experience giving birth while on Medicaid helped her relate to Mangione’s grievances with the healthcare industry. Suffering from a postpartum hemorrhage, she said she wanted to spend more than two days in the hospital after giving birth but couldn’t afford care beyond what Medicaid provided.

Thomas said she believes Mangione is innocent — framing him as a victim of the healthcare industry and justice system — but said his case has brought light to the need to improve healthcare.

“It sparked a catalyst to think about what kind of world we are going to leave our children,” she said, showing a Justo Juez prayer candle she plans to light for Mangione. “Our generation has seen so much devastation throughout the years, and our children are going to suffer at the hands of corporate greed.”

Prosecutors allege that Mangione meticulously planned and carried out the murder of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on the morning of Dec. 4 before fleeing the state to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested days later at a McDonald’s. According to the federal complaint, Mangione was in possession of a notebook in which he expressed hostility to healthcare executives, described the insurance industry as his target because it “checks every box,” and laid out his intent to “whack” Thompson at UnitedHealthcare’s investors conference.

While Mangione did not have family in court on Monday, about two dozen women attended the arraignment in the public section of the gallery, many of them voicing support for Mangione.

“This is a grave injustice, and that’s why people are here,” one of the women, who said she arrived at the courthouse at 5 a.m., told ABC News.

Outside court, protestors rallied for Mangione, chanting “Eat the rich,” “Hey, hey, ho, ho, these CEOs have got to go,” and “Free, free Luigi.”

Nicholas Zamudio, 33, said he came to the protest after spending over $100,000 out of pocket for his treatment after an electric injury in 2021. Holding a sign that read “United States Healthcare Stole My Livelihood. Prosecute Malicious Profiteers,” Zamudio said he doesn’t know if he will be able to afford his ongoing treatment for nerve damage.

“I don’t have insurance, I’ve drained my 401K. I’ve drained everything that I have, and come January I will be trying to keep a roof over my head by couch hopping amongst friends. I’ve lost everything and that’s what brought me out here,” he said.

Zamudio said he found comfort in Mangione’s writings about his spinal injury, noting they both received similar spinal fusion operations.

“He talked about not being able to sleep, laying in pain, things like that,” he said. “I guess a lot kind of resonated with me in regards to the pain and not getting help with the healthcare system. I think murder is obviously wrong, but it did bring us to a point we needed to get to.”

Law enforcement has raised concerns about the outpouring of support for Mangione and hostility towards healthcare industry since Thompson’s killing, with multiple police bulletins warning about the increased risk to healthcare executives. UnitedHealth Group’s CEO Andrew Witty appeared to acknowledge the public sentiment, writing in an opinion essay in the New York Times earlier this month that he “understand people’s frustrations” with healthcare and vowed to “to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs.”

“[W]e also are struggling to make sense of this unconscionable act and the vitriol that has been directed at our colleagues who have been barraged by threats. No employees — be they the people who answer customer calls or nurses who visit patients in their homes — should have to fear for their and their loved ones’ safety,” Witty wrote.

While the specifics of Mangione’s grievances with the healthcare injury remain unclear — and we do not know if his personal issues with the healthcare system motivated his alleged actions — many of the protesters came to their own conclusions about what motivated the alleged killer.

A 26-year-old woman from Queens who preferred to go unnamed said she related to Mangione after she fell off her parent’s healthcare plan and couldn’t afford COBRA coverage. Having gone uninsured for months, she said she believes the healthcare system is broken based on her inability to find a good plan despite days of effort calling different insurance companies.

“I spent an entire month — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with three phones in front of me — waiting on the phone on hold to get access to these people. They put me through circles and circles and circles,” she said.

Another woman from Brooklyn said she came to court because she believed Mangione was bringing attention to the need for universal healthcare in the United States. She added that she didn’t trust the media coverage of Mangione’s case and wanted to see the proceedings with her own eyes to draw conclusions.

“There was a lot of support from where we were in the back [of court],” she said after attending the arraignment in person. “I believe it’s a conversation that a lot of people are having now, and whatever we can do to help progress this conversation is worthy of participating in.”

Bill Dobbs, who lives in Manhattan, said he was motivated to support Mangione after federal prosecutors charged the 26-year-old with a crime that carries the death penalty. He held a sign that read “Justice not Vengeance.”

“It’s very alarming there could be a death penalty,” he said. “Punishment has got to leave a chance for change, and the death penalty doesn’t.”

Mangione’s disdain for the healthcare industry only added to his reasons to support the alleged killer, Dobbs said.

“What’s going on in the private healthcare industry is scandalous,” he said.

While most of the protestors said they believed Mangione was innocent, their support for Mangione carried an implicit incongruence — Is Mangione an innocent victim or a martyr for confronting the healthcare industry through his alleged actions? Many protestors who spoke with ABC News reconciled the beliefs by referencing the plague of mass shootings impacting the United States, claiming that the attention on Mangione and terrorism label is evidence of a broken justice system.

“He’s an alleged shooter, but how many school shooters are labeled with terrorism. How many?” asked one protestor.

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One person died and at least five were hospitalized after a boat explosion and dock fire at a marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The explosion occurred in direct view of an EarthCam feed set up at the Lauderdale Marina.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to several 911 calls about the incident at approximately 6 p.m. Monday.

Upon arrival, they reported discovering one primary boat fire that had spread to a second nearby vessel at the marina, according to a statement from FLFR.

Several people were injured from both the explosion and the fire, officials noted, and five were sent to the hospital.

Three of those individuals were hospitalized with “traumatic” injuries, according to the FLFR.

Divers and watercraft began searching for one individual who was unaccounted for after the blast, the statement said.

However, that person was found deceased by the Broward Sheriff’s Office later that evening, according to the FLFR.

The identities of the six victims of the explosion have not yet been released.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, according to officials.

Agencies involved included the BSO, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard.

ABC News’ Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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(NEBRASKA) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen is recovering from serious but non-life-threatening injuries after being bucked off a horse, his office said Monday.

The incident happened when the Republican leader was riding on horseback with family members near Columbus on Sunday.

The governor was thrown from a new horse, his office said. His injuries included “minor lacerations to his spleen and kidney, seven broken ribs, a partially collapsed lung resulting from the rib damage, and a minor fracture in one of his vertebrae,” his office said in an update on Monday.

“In summary, the Governor’s injuries were serious but not life-threatening and could have been much worse,” the statement added.

Pillen, 68, was initially transported to Columbus Community Hospital before being sent to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha “out of an abundance of caution,” his office previously said.

The governor is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days for observation and plans to work from his hospital room, his office said Monday.

“The Governor looks forward to returning to his office soon after Christmas and wishes a blessed and safe holiday to all Nebraskans,” his office said in the statement.

Pillen, who played football at the University of Nebraska under legendary coach and former Rep. Tom Osborne, took office in January 2023.

ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

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