Death in Garberville Appears Accidental, Says HCSO
Press release from HCSO:
On Feb. 5, 2023, at about 11:27 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a grocery store on the 800 block of Redwood Drive in Garberville for the report of an injured man.
Deputies arrived in the area and located a 43-year-old man with significant head injuries in the loading dock area of the business. The man was declared deceased on scene. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Major Crimes Division was dispatched to investigate.
Upon further investigation, including reviewing surveillance footage from the business, Sheriff’s Investigators determined the man had climbed the fence separating the loading dock from an elevated alleyway. The man was possibly attempting to vandalize the business’ security camera when he appears to have slipped from the fence, falling several feet and sustaining fatal injuries.
The decedent has been identified; however, his identity is being withheld pending next of kin notification. An autopsy is in the process of being scheduled.
Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
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That actually is a very long drop, and that specific spot leads into the back of the Johnson Motel as well. Was he actually trying to break into the Ray’s? Or just sneak the back way into the Johnson?
I don’t see the point of breaking the security camera right there. There are people at Ray’s pretty much 24/7 (Night shift, stocking crew, etc.), and there is no way into Rays anywhere near that fence. You can’t get up onto the roof from there. Soooooooo….
The only thing that makes sense to me is he was planning on breaking into one of the houses that the security camera faces on the street right there, or into the Johnson and didn’t want to be seen. I know the family that lives on the corner there, they are VERY nice people with some adorable dogs. I hope he didn’t have any bad intentions for them.
Well, whatever happened. Poor guy probably should have been a bit more careful with his Oceans Eleven re-enactment.
My guess he was high and or drunk and the thinking of people on drugs is not always logical clear etc. For all we know he thought.the CIA was watching him from the camera. We will never know.
This actually did not happen in the area you are describing. It happened on their loading dock. Where the big trucks park to unload.
I thank this man for his friendship and a warm place to live when I had none as a teenager. My condolences to the family
Thank you for speaking one of the kind truths about this person.
I knew him very well, and dated him for a few years before he made a turn for the worse. He was once one of the kindest, most open hearted brightest gentlemen I’ve known. He opened his home to many houseless people and feed them and helped them so long as they were clean. Because he was a kind person and unfortunately this opened up doors in his life that only made his life worse. Tears are in my heart and eyes because even though he was on a path that no one other than himself could save him from he was still an amazing person inside. It was a drunken accident and he was refused service because he was drunk and tried to vandalize the cameras and fell. I can still hear his voice hello miss ($#&##@.) It’s shocking and very very sad. So please please consider that this person was a prominent person in Southern Humboldt almost all his life. I am a born and raised SoHum native and I know all to well what it can turn people into. But he was a good person and he has a lot of people who knew and loved him. Me being one of them. So out of respect please watch what you say. No one is perfect and everyone has hardships and falls down, I just wish I could have been there to pick him back up. But I had to lift myself and couldn’t slip back down the hole. But no matter what I’ll always love him and my biggest prayers go out to his family and friends. I’ll see you again some day my sweet Sir.
So glad you humanized his existence-just made a bad decision sounds like
Instant karma?
Rather than assume he had bad intent, I thought he might have been seeking a sheltered place to pass a cold damp night 😓
He lived nearby.
Now that’s what I call self-rehabilitation and karma…He won’t be a burden to police or citizens anymore.
That’s a cruel comment, Joe. Please reconsider…
Actually what happened is he was extremely drunk and harassing customers that evening and harassing the Rays clerk screaming and calling her horrible names he was in a blackout drunk and this was his MO he gets drunk and harasses. The sheriff never showed up if they had maybe he would still be alive. He either was so drunk he couldn’t figure out how to get home and he went down the wrong pathway or he was trying to vandalize the cameras. Either way I’m sure he once was a good person but he has been harassing the town for years he was a bad drunk. It’s hard to find good things about a person when their legacy has been as of late a scary and horrible person. But I’m sure it’s some point in his life I’ve heard that he was a good person. The sad truth of the matter is that this is what alcohol and drugs do put you in a misperception of reality and that’s what happened to him. I hope he finds peace condolences to the family.
I had only met him a few times, but his son is my partner and genuinely one of the best things in my life, and if nothing else I’m thankful for the role he had in raising his kid. He leaves behind an amazing young man who is artistic, kind, hardworking, and a great member of the community.
Darwin strikes again.
Why couldn’t you just Rays in the article?
Assuming all the comments are true, he was a person who did good at times and not so good at other times, especially when under the influence of alcohol. The sad part is, he, like so many others, was not getting the help he needed. This story will keep playing out as long as treatment for drugs, alcohol and mental illness is voluntary. We are respecting people’s rights to be drunk, high and crazy right into the grave.
If the treatment for drugs and alcohol is non-voluntary it doesn’t work. Everyone in recovery knows this. The system tried 5 times with me and it never worked. One day I woke up and wanted it myself, so I didn’t die, it worked. Not saying the devastation this causes our communities is right. But its the truth.
Agree that something has to change within the person, but everyone’s path to that point is different. Before Prop 47, given a choice of prison or treatment, many addicts chose treatment. I believe the stats are that whether choosing or forced into treatment the rate of recovery is about the same. But I guess you’re ok with free range drug addicts and drunks inflicting their dysfunction on the rest of us. And I guess you’re ok with mentally ill people deciding for themselves if they want treatment? Because letting the people who need help decide for themselves has worked so well over the last 50 years.
Yeah, let’s start putting our family members and friends back on the lobotomy train…
No one’s advocating for medieval torture but putting ill people out on the street without support was equally cruel. Looking at some of the lost souls floundering around they might as well of had lobotomies.
Condolences to the family.
Here are some AA locations and times for you or a person you know, when they are looking for help.
Meetings (aahumboldtdelnorte.org)
Man that is a rough way to go, I knew him for over 20 years. It’s absolutely amazing the personality changes alcohol can cause. I HAD an uncle like this, he could be the quietest, nicest person you’ve ever met until drunk and then turn into one of the meanest. He drank himself to death too…
We are so much more than our worst moments. I send my condolences to this person’s family and all that knew them. Addiction is such a terrible disease and can change so much about a person but they are still someone who was loved and will be missed.
One could say I have known you for almost 30 years. But… have I really?
The first 5 we were good friends. We would both land in Redway after school and hang at our buddies house. We would chat, game for hours. It is quite possible you were the smartest person in your class. I was simply not prepared at that age to comprehend mathematical concepts that came to you with relative ease. After school our lives diverged. The friends we chose changed. We still crossed paths on occasion, and exchanged pleasantries. Pretty sure the last 8 years it has been nothing more than stories from others. I had disappeared from your life. I could have done better. Life is a series of moments. We decide how to approach them, and how to handle while we are in them.
I did not have to abandon you… but I did.
I chose my path and I am happy in it. Sorry I did not try harder to make sure you were here as well.