{"id":8948,"date":"2018-06-23T12:42:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T19:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8948"},"modified":"2018-06-23T12:48:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T19:48:04","slug":"man-39-found-dead-in-front-of-the-veterans-memorial-building-in-downtown-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/23\/man-39-found-dead-in-front-of-the-veterans-memorial-building-in-downtown-berkeley\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 39, found dead in front of the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
By\u00a0Frances Dinkelspiel<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>
\n
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Kareah Mendoza. Photo: Barbara Brust<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Members involved with the homeless community are mourning the death of Kareah Mendoza, 39, who was found unresponsive in front of the Veterans\u2019 Memorial Building on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

A passerby alerted police at 7:43 a.m. about an inert man, according to Berkeley police spokesman Byron White. His death did not appear to be suspicious, so his body was sent to the Alameda County Coroner\u2019s Office, said White. The coroner\u2019s office released his name but has not yet determined a cause of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cRIP KK,\u201d Barbara Brust, the founder of the group\u00a0Consider the Homeless<\/a>, posted on its\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>, referring to Mendoza\u2019s nickname. \u201c1979-2018. You are already missed and were loved by many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brust said Mendoza had been living on the streets of Berkeley for a number of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am heartbroken,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was such a sweet man despite the really hard road he\u2019s been on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brust said Mendoza\u2019s life had been irrevocably changed, she\u00a0believes,\u00a0 upon the death of his pregnant wife who used a wheelchair. She also lived on the streets. Brust was not certain of the timeline of her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she died he changed,\u201d she said. \u201cHe lost his heart but he didn\u2019t lose the part that made him so sweet and endearing to those who knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza started to drink more heavily after that, she said.<\/p>\n

Because he had a sweet and trusting disposition, other homeless people often took advantage of Mendoza, said Brust. He had been robbed and beaten repeatedly in recent years.<\/p>\n

The coroner\u2019s office said Mendoza did not have a fixed address but his Facebook page said he was from Oakland.<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0of Mendoza\u2019s family now live in Washington, and about a year ago they launched a fundraising drive to try and locate Mendoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Family, Mom and I need your help to reunite my brother who is hard to find somewhere in California while we are here in Washington,\u201d Mendoza\u2019s brother Gabriel\u00a0wrote about 11 months ago on a fundraising site.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe have not seen or heard much from him in a few years. Last I heard he was living on the streets due to alcoholism. We are definitely worried about him and, above all, we LOVE and miss him. We do not have enough funds to be able to find him, travel to and from California, get a hotel while we are searching, clean him up after we find him, put him on the train with us and bring him home. The only thing truly standing in the way of this reunion is financial concerns. My Mom has been praying and crying over him. Hoping to see him by the end of September of this year.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of Mendoza\u2019s family posted on Facebook that they would be returning to Oakland next week to hold a memorial service. Mendoza\u2019s Berkeley friends are planning to hold a short service for him at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Building at 1931 Center St.<\/p>\n

This is the second person experiencing homelessness to die on the streets of Berkeley this year. Lisa Blowers, 51,\u00a0died on Woolsey near Telegraph on May 28.<\/a><\/p>\n

Note from Mike Zint of FTCftH:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The raids started, and then the fatalities started. The first fatality moved to avoid a raid. Sadly, it took 24 hours for his death to be reported. It was known about almost immediately by the homeless support network.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the second person experiencing homelessness to die on the streets of Berkeley this year. Lisa Blowers, 51, died on Woolsey near Telegraph on May 28.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Frances Dinkelspiel\u00a0June 22, 2018\u00a0(Berkeleyside.com) Kareah Mendoza. Photo: Barbara Brust Members involved with the homeless community are mourning the death of Kareah Mendoza, 39, who was found unresponsive in front of the Veterans\u2019 Memorial Building on Thursday morning. A passerby alerted police at 7:43 a.m. about an inert man, according to… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8953,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948\/revisions\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}