Berkeley: Another Hate Crime Murder That is Not Going to Make the National News

 

Nancy Jo McClellan. Photo: Courtesy of the McClellan Family [The San Francisco Chronicle]
 

Suspected war criminal Kamau Berlin, whose photograph the Chronicle refused to provide. No matter; when a media operation refuses to provide a picture, and the suspect does not have a Spanish surname, you know he’s black.
 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this story.
 

Woman, 72, stabbed in Berkeley carjacking dies
By Henry K. Lee
Updated 5:01 pm, Wednesday, October 8, 2014
San Francisco Chronicle

Nancy Jo McClellan, 72, of Emeryville, died after being stabbed during a carjacking attempt in Berkeley on September 19, 2014. Kamau Berlin was charged with attempted murder and attempted carjacking in the case.

A 72-year-old gardener and improvisational artist died early Wednesday after being stabbed during a carjacking attempt last month in Berkeley, and a jailed suspect now faces murder charges, authorities said.

Nancy Jo McClellan, who was attacked while leaving a wedding, was removed from life support at a Berkeley care facility, a day after being transferred there from Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Kamau Berlin, 18, who was arrested shortly after the attack, had been held on suspicion of attempted murder and attempted carjacking. He is now expected to face a murder charge.

About 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, officers responded to reports of a woman screaming “Help me!” at Russell and Otis streets near the Berkeley Zen Center, where McClellan had served as head gardener until recently. She had just left the center after attending a wedding and was returning to her car.

A witness looked out her window and saw a man “making punching motions” into the rear passenger area of a parked Honda, Berkeley police Sgt. Peter Hong wrote in an affidavit filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

A second witness saw McClellan unconscious on the ground and Berlin in the driver’s seat, trying to get the vehicle to start, Hong wrote.

McClellan regained consciousness and asked for help, prompting Berlin to pick her up and put her in the back seat, police said. Berlin told the witness he was just trying to help, but McClellan said, “He’s not helping me,” and continued asking for assistance, Hong wrote.

Officers arrived and caught Berlin after a foot chase, police said. He had blood stains on his face, shirt and pants, Hong wrote, and made incriminating admissions during subsequent phone calls from jail.

Police found McClellan suffering from stab wounds to her neck.

McClellan was active in the improv community in San Francisco, friends said. At the Berkeley Zen Center, she “just took really nice care of the garden,” said a friend, Liz Horowitz of Berkeley. “It really thrived under her care.”

Alan Senauke, vice abbot at the Zen Center, said, “She was an original in many ways, kind of quirky but constantly creative.”

He deplored the violence, saying, “My personal feeling is that to some degree she was probably targeted as an older woman who had a car that somebody was interested in. It’s terribly shocking and it was a horrible, brutal crime.”

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee