1 Dead, 1 Injured Following Crowbar Attack

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a homicide after finding a body of a man in his 60s behind a pharmacy on Castro Valley Boulevard this past Saturday.

Just after 7:30 a.m., a 23-year-old man called 911 to report he had been beaten with a crowbar and was bleeding. Deputies found the injured man near the drug store on the 3600 block of Castro Valley Boulevard near Yeandle Avenue.

During questioning, the younger man told deputies he and the older man got into a verbal argument when suddenly the older man became violent.

When deputies walked around the building, they saw the older man lying on the ground. The man was unresponsive and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The deceased and the victim are described by officials as being homeless. Deputies are withholding the names of both men during the initial investigation.

“It appears the deceased man attacked the victim and a deadly struggle ensued,” ACSO Lieutenant Ray Kelly said. “The victim may have used a choke hold to subdue his attacker.”

The younger man was taken to Eden Medical Center for his injuries. Deputies later charged the young man with murder and providing false identification to authorities.

“The victim is cooperating with the Sheriff’s department,” Sargent JD Nelson told the Forum. “We are waiting for an autopsy of the older man’s body and a report from forensics, which may take some time.”

Sgt. Nelson also noted that the deceased, older man was, “well known to law enforcement,” and had a long history of arrests in the area.

The incident is the first reported homicide in Castro Valley in 2022.

An April report by the Alameda County Health Care Services (HCSA) for the Homeless program found in the mid-county region of Hayward, Alameda, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Castro Valley there were 188 deaths reported between 2018 and 2020.

Some 44 of those deaths happened in Castro Valley while 40 occurred in San Leandro. Of those 188 deaths, a third (62) happened in a hospital, 12 percent (24) happened on the street, 9 percent (17) happened in a nursing facility, with the rest occurring in an encampment, at a friend’s house, or outdoors somewhere.

In the two-year period studied, only 10 deaths in the mid-county region were categorized as homicide. Homicide deaths were most frequently due to gunshot (70%) and stabbing (12%) among the homeless population in Alameda County, according to the HCSA report.