[UPDATE 12:40 p.m.] Homicide in Hoopa

HCSO Humboldt County Sheriff's Office BlurA man was fatally stabbed this morning at a gas station in Hoopa, confirmed Lt. Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

The situation was complicated by a slide closing the road on Hwy 96 making access difficult for law enforcement and emergency personnel.

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: Reportedly multiple subjects were involved in an altercation that left one man dead and one suspect on the run from law enforcement. The incident happened in downtown Hoopa at the mini mart and gas station. The business is now closed and encased in crime scene tape as the Humboldt County Sheriff and the Hoopa Tribal Police search the scene for evidence.

According to Sgt. Greg Allen of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, his office was notified of a “disturbance in Hoopa Valley at 8:35 a.m.” A stabbing had occurred, said Allen. A life flight was called for the 30-year-old male victim. However, he was being transported by ambulance when he was pronounced deceased, Allen explained.

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The Hoopa Mini mart and gas station are closed following a fatal stabbing this morning [Photo provided by Allie Hostler.]

UPDATE 12:22 p.m.: Our reporter Oliver Cory did a little research. He tells us, “This is Humboldt County’s first confirmed homicide of the year. Additionally, we’ve reported four stabbings in Humboldt County in the past 10 days.”

UPDATE 12:40 p.m.: Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On 02-13-16, at approximately 8:32 AM, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office received a call regarding a disturbance in the Hoopa Valley. Deputies and Medical personnel arrived on scene and began life saving efforts on a 30 year old male. The male victim was transported to a landing zone to be flown out by helicopter. The victim succumbed to his injury prior to being transported by helicopter.

There are no suspects at this time. This incident is currently being investigated by Detectives with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at

707-268-2539.

Mike Downey,

Sheriff

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william tillman
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william tillman
8 years ago

What’s with the knifes agian.

sharpen your pencil
Guest
sharpen your pencil
8 years ago

Traded their guns for smack….

sharpen your pencil
Guest
sharpen your pencil
8 years ago

For shit sake hoopa get your shit together. Break the stereo type not amplify it…..

molly dodge
Guest
molly dodge
8 years ago

hey, why don’t all you self-righteous assholes shit and fall back in it.

Average Hoopa Citizen
Guest
Average Hoopa Citizen
8 years ago

It sucks to be a good person here. Please don’t judge us by the ones who make the news. We’re helpless with no law. We can’t change the people whose minds are ran by drugs. We can’t even get them out of here to start fresh. All we can do is pray that the politics stops and the powers that be save us.

sharpen your pencil
Guest
sharpen your pencil
8 years ago

As long as your praying for action instead of acting you, the good people of hoopa are not helping yourselves. You need to act as a community, praying is acting, it’s wishing someone else steps up to resolve the issue. The problem is that the council want to blame growers for the drug problem instead of its own members. The constant lack in accountability the tribal elders show is nearly pathetic… it’s time to quit the self thrown pitty party and build a damn bridge.

Hupa Love
Guest
Hupa Love
8 years ago

It’s funny how you seem to know so much about Hoopa and its people. N yet you fail to see that these types of things happen everywhere! You tell people to start acting but yet I don’t see you trying to at least uplift the good people in our community, instead you help bring them down along with stereotyping us. Yes we pray and ask for guidance from a higher power that’s where we get our answers n strength, I will remember to keep you in prayer, whomever u may be, maybe that will open it eyes to the bigger picture.

westside
Guest
westside
8 years ago

your right”Praying IS acting”you said it yourself!

Think before you speak
Guest
Think before you speak
8 years ago

We can pretend like the same doesn’t happen in all communities. The fact that Hoopa is small obviously makes it more noticeable. An event like this is unfortunate but should not label the rest of us. That is just plain ignorance.

DownRiverGirl
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DownRiverGirl
8 years ago

Didn’t 3of the 4 stabbings happen in Eureka?

Rick
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Rick
8 years ago

So sorry to here of the rage in the valley .i want to to visit my friends someday and do some fishing on the Rez ., so people clean up your act.STOP THE DRUGS GET CLEAN AND SRART OVER

Humble one
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Humble one
8 years ago

How about we just say sorry for the loss of a family member and friend and hope the perpetrator is caught. No need to disparage anyone or anything.

M Torres
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M Torres
8 years ago

Your dislike of people not of your race and color is sickening. There are some wonderful people who live and raised their families there. How dare you make such terrible comments. A human being has lost their life and you not knowing their circumstances sit there making discussing hurtful remarks. Who in the hell gave you the right to even have a right to make these remarks. Maybe you should just read the article and reframe from saying anything that shows your ignorance and hate of other race’s other than your own. You act like Hoopa is the only place that has this problem, maybe you need to look around your neighborhood, town and city. It’s EVERYWHERE!! I’ve seen dislike like yours has a way of coming back to bite you in the butt. If you don’t have a drug problem around you, be sincerely grateful.

123
Guest
123
8 years ago
Reply to  M Torres

Well said M Torres!

C Harding
Guest
C Harding
8 years ago
Reply to  M Torres

Well said!

Deep thoughts
Guest
Deep thoughts
8 years ago

Killed off and pushesd into polluted mining land perverted by a monetary system and poisoned by alcohol they were doing just fine pre immigration ,just something to think about i guess ,humble yourself people and be a brother or sister

Pamlyn Millsap
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Pamlyn Millsap
8 years ago

I am sorry for the loss of life and send condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. L( prayers for all involved.

Proud to live in Hoopa
Guest
Proud to live in Hoopa
8 years ago

This is horrible. I am a proud Hupa Tribal member, mother, and wife, living in the Hoopa Valley. I am so tired of people judging us on all the negative that has been posted about Hoopa in the papers. Yes we have drugs, yes we have crime and yes we have those people that we want gone but still remain! Why do the paper never publish the good? Why only the negative? When one of our warriors passed away from a heart attack, in the mountains and alone, that was published, but did it mention it happen while he was providing for his family? Or how since his passing the community has pulled together to help with wood, food and house hold chores for his widow and children, that he provided for when he was alive? Or how about the warriors and women who on a daily basis, go about the valley and help the elders cook, clean, cut wood, hunt, fish, and even listen to the stories they tell?! No!! Why not? Because “Society” loves to have a bad guy, and it seems like the “Bad Guy” is Hoopa. What about the priest who was mutilated and killed in a church in Eureka a few years ago? That wasn’t in Hoopa. How about all the Meth Lab explosions on the Coast? They seem like a monthly thing. Those were not in Hoopa either. Devils Play Ground isn’t in Hoopa. My point is; crime, drugs and nasty people we don’t want around but still are, are EVERYWHERE!!! It just seems like Hoopa has more because we have a smaller population!! Wasn’t there a poll or list of some type, a while back, that listed Eureka #2 city to most likely get killed in? Los Angels being #1. I ask the newspapers to come to Hoopa and LOOK for the real Hoopa! The True Warriors are out there! Don’t look for what people want to see. Stop making Hoopa the “Bad Guy”!

My condolences, prayers, and respect go out to this young mans family. I hope the culprit is caught, and your pain eases with closure. May Grandfather guide his steps now.

Proud to live in Hoopa
Guest
Proud to live in Hoopa
8 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

I will ask my friends and family. They are better writers than me. can you send me some type of link so I can post to my time line on facebook?

Brenda johnston
Guest
Brenda johnston
8 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

It would have been nice to have had a voice in Hoopa, on Hoopa’s parking lot disturbance recently, the same day LE had an accident en route.

Holly Brown
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Holly Brown
8 years ago

Beautifully said, please know not everyone shares these bad feelings about your wonderful culture!

shyanne (sheila)
Guest
8 years ago

very well said

Catgrine
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Catgrine
8 years ago

Fyi, man involved non- Native, not that it matters at all. Check your racism.

Leanne Estrada
Guest
Leanne Estrada
8 years ago

Thank You Molly! My condolences and prayers to the families involved in this tragic occurance! The victim is not a tribal member and not raised in Hoopa. The suspect is also not a Hoopa Tribal Member from my knowledge, and not a Hoopa resident yet we are blamed for the majority of crime and abuse in Our community. We are the services hub of the north eastern Humboldt County community. We have a few options to regain control of the life and death issues that are upon us daily, one being to initiate a closed reservation! The county law enforcement has been behind the drug traffic for decades just as all of the drug trades infiltrate all detention centers and prisons! Law enforcement in North Eastern Humboldt has been dysfunctional for more than 50 years and Sherrif Downey is no different! We need to protect ourselves and stop the abuse that is perpetuated from our health care providers down to our educational system. We rely on the system when we need to rely on and empower ourselves! Our community is poor, poverty is alive, those who have in our community keep it for themselves and do not put anything back into our community. Our healing cannot be completed in a 90 treatment program but it is truly a start! The entire family of an addict needs healing and we are not able to provide such services at this time! We are trying and it is a process but Humboldt County has done nothing to help yet they count our census numbers and collect $ from the federal government to provide services that don’t exist! Again, our prayers are often and they are strong! We will conquer the genocide and again be the strong HUPA nation of our ancestors!

G-ma
Guest
G-ma
8 years ago

There’s clearly a problem there,no law enforcement so let’s all act stupid.this is why they have such a bad reputation!!They need help there what’s the problem?didn’t they hire a bunch of sheriff’s?I feel bad for them being so isolated,somebody needs to show them how to care about each other again and be stronger.so sorry for the family

Jaquetta Graham
Guest
Jaquetta Graham
8 years ago

Coming from small town reservation like hoopa… we all have blood shed of our ansestors. And the inner trama all our native people have it’s thinker than people will ever see with a closed Mind. the madness does not go away over night people seem to think that.we are just starting to see clearer now pray is all we can do. Coming from 1st generation after the hell our people went through its hard. I pray to our ansestors and our creator to guide the people of all nations my condolences to the families involved. Everyone please don’t jump to conclusions of race or stereotyping the situation just makes matters worse and the families involved read this please be more opened mined before opening your mouths..what do they say. “If you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.. ” may the Creator and all our ansestors watch over the community of hoopa in this hard time of greif bless you.

DaPisan
Guest
DaPisan
8 years ago

Knife Control

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Anne Martin
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Anne Martin
8 years ago

The problem is nationwide, and has nothing to do with race. It has to do with drugs. Who knows where it all will end. I overheard a contractor here in Bend talking to a friend when we were out to dinner recently. He was complaining that he couldn’t get a full crew of workers because his insurance requires him to drug test every new employee, and also to drug test long time employees on a regular basis. His last six new hires (to be) flunked the drug test. Willow Creek, Eureka and Arcata, and all the surrounding communities all have a huge problem. Watching the presidential debates, one of the biggest problems in New Hampshire is drugs, and how it is destroying families. That is at the other end of the country! All of us have seen or known someone close to us that has been brought down by drugs. Whatever the cause of the killing in Hoopa, I would bet $100 that drugs were involved. I love the Hoopa Valley, being born there during the flood in 1955, and raised there in my childhood. When I go back, it’s like coming home. It is really beautiful, and peaceful, when you take a drive through the valley. Unfortunately, Hoopa is not immune to the same problems affecting the whole country, and the person that said “because it is a small town, it’s more noticeable when there is murder and mayhem.” That’s true. Just read the North Coast Journal, and you’ll see crime is up all over the North Coast, as it is nationwide. As a grandparent, I want a place that my granddaughter can be raised in a drug-free community, but there isn’t one anywhere. Crime goes hand in hand with drugs, and the good people that live in Hoopa must be just as devastated that their valley has become a scary place. Every country is dealing with the drug problem, not just the USA. I just hope when the names of the suspect and victims are released, I don’t know them. They have families too, and my thoughts are for the loved ones that will be grieving.

Liz
Guest
Liz
8 years ago
Reply to  Anne Martin

Thank you. You wrote what I was thinking.

G-ma
Guest
G-ma
8 years ago

We can’t hire any one around here.nobody passes the test.and liability insurance,state comp.all have gone up,u have to test.who wants to get sued?To bad to,there’s alot of talented people here.

Stupid people
Guest
Stupid people
8 years ago

I just love how the say victim NON NATIVE who the f cares some one is DEAD no matter the race but it is a TRIBAL MEMBER WHO KILLED HIM

concerned gramz
Guest
concerned gramz
8 years ago

No matter what ,whom were when or why the communitie knows where the real blame starts it when and how the people r going to deal with it , it’s too bad because I fear for our future generations

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