Editor's Note: After the story appeared, the boy's Uncle provided a response through a lawyer. That response is at the bottom of the story.
The mother of an Auburn man who was brutally beaten over the head with a baseball bat says more than $100,000 in donations have not gotten to him.
According to police, 18-year-old Julian Tui-Mau-Ga attacked 26-year-old DaShawn Horne from behind with a metal baseball bat on Jan. 20 while yelling racial slurs after DaShawn spent the night with the teen’s sister.
Since then, LaDonna Horne said she has been at her son’s bedside in Harborview Medical Center.
“(It's been) three months and a few days,” LaDonna told us when we met her outside the hospital Saturday night.
That’s also how long a GoFundMe account - set up for DaShawn by another family member - has been receiving donations. To date, there is $122,105 in the account, but LaDonna said that family member refuses to release the money to her or to DaShawn.
“Who does that?” LaDonna asked. “The funds are needed right now.”
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She said she’s called Auburn police and filed several complaints with GoFundMe, but so far has not recieved any money.
“If you’re doing something out of love - this doesn’t sound like love. This sounds like greed,” LaDonna told us.
And DaShawn is days away from needing that love more than ever; he’s coming home next week and will need around-the-clock care.
“These funds were given to my son so I can take care of my son. I was told that my son may not be able to go to work for the next two to three years. So with my son living with me, I take care of him, I feed him, I’ll be the one bathing him, I’ll be the one taking care of his bills and everything else he needs.”
LaDonna is asking the public to stop donating to the GoFundMe account. She said she now considers it fraudulent.
If you want to help the family, there is an account set up through Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union. If you'd like to make a contribution, contact branch manager Stephanie Stewart at 425-251-5161.
In response to this story a GoFundMe spokesperson provided this statement to KIRO 7:
"When a campaign is created on behalf of another individual, the funds are collected by our payment processors, held, and then released only to the person named as the beneficiary. GoFundMe worked with DaShawn's brother Ob-ira Ben Israel, the campaign organizer, and all parties involved to ensure funds were transferred to a trust on behalf of DaShawn Horne. GoFundMe has been provided documentation of the trust and will stay in contact with all parties and law enforcement to ensure that funds are used to support DaShawn."
Cox Media Group
