Three Unit 1 male security monitors were robbed at gunpoint early Wednesday morning as they waited at a nearby bus stop.
Alex Cheng, 19, Jason Keller, 20, and Devin Koba, 19, were sitting at the bus stop between the Putnam and Freeborn halls, waiting for the Owl Line to come pick them up when the suspect approached them holding a handgun and took two cell phones and $182.
Popularity: 81%
Although police and school officials say they think gangs do not have a major presence at Berkeley High School, they admit the kids would know most about student membership in West Side Berkeley or H2O Front Berkeley—the two most prominent Berkeley gangs.
“Even in the junior high you’ll pick up notebooks and they’ll have H2O written all over it,” said Berkeley police Sgt. Patricia Delaluna, a gang expert. “The kids know better than anybody who’s all involved.”
However, even students are in discrepancy about the presence of gangs. Two juniors at Berkeley High, Rafi Susman and Michael Salaverry, said they don’t think gangs exist in their school.
“I don’t worry about that, not at Berkeley High,” Salaverry said.
His friend said even though there aren’t gangs at the school, there still is criminal activity.
“There’s gang-like activity but they’re not labeled as gangs,” Susman said. “I think here it’s more about ridiculous individuals than ridiculous gangs.”
However, other students are positive of the presence of gang-like groups, which sometimes engage in criminal behavior but do not label themselves as “gangs.”
“There’s gangs, but sometimes they’re called cliques,” said Cervon Rogers, a freshman at Berkeley High. “Then they say the ‘turf’ they’re from, they do signs, they target each other.”
Popularity: 46%
When the case seemed cold, homicide detectives in the Berkeley Police Department received an unexpected tip about the 2006 shooting death of Wayne Drummond, Jr. As a result, two men were arrested.
Police have charged Berkeley resident Brandon Crowder, 20, and Richmond resident Nicholas Beaudreaux, 22, with the murder of 23-year-old Drummond, who died on the steps of UC Berkeley sorority, said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.
Popularity: 61%
A dance-off held at Barrows Hall on Friday night to promote nonviolence turned into a chain-reaction fight that required UC Berkeley Police to evacuate the building.
Bones Entertainment, a non-profit organization founded by Richmond resident Raashida Manning, hosts “turf wars” where dance groups compete in “turfing,” a kind of dance that combines street dance, hip-hop, popping and mime.
The “Face Off” dance, which started at 6:30 p.m. on the 8th floor of Barrows Hall, had about 400 people in attendance according to police. By 8:30 p.m. it turned into a fight involving around 20 people, but no injuries were reported.
Manning said she started Bones Entertainment two years ago after her nephew was killed. She said she wants to promote nonviolence by giving young dancers a place to compete.
“These kids do this dancing, and there’s not really a place they can go to do this,” Manning said. “I’ve worked with all the dancers in the area and they do it to stay out of trouble.”
Manning said she had five security people at the event Friday. None of her previous four dance-offs turned into fights, she said.
Popularity: 34%