Help Max Heal Following Anti-Homeless Attack

Hi, I'm Brent,

I run a homeless services center frequented by Max, who a group of students recently violently attacked. Max has already had a difficult life, including a similar attack many years ago.

Like many community members, I was shocked upon hearing of the senseless beating that had left him clinging to life. We're heartened that he is alive and may recover, though it will be a long path toward health. This moment is one of those times when our community rallies in support of one of our own.

Max has visited Footbridge Homeless Services Center every day for more than 3-years, where he enjoys being a part of our community and helping with landscaping maintenance. Utilizing our storage, laundry and shower services, we've watched as Max has improved, and we've become friends.

It'll be a slow road to recovery; surprisingly, Max has few personal resources and will need our help. Our nonprofit will facilitate this fundraiser and allocate funds directly to Max to help promote his path back to healthfulness.

Thank you for joining us and donating what you can.

Truly,

Brent

New Alert (10/17)

This fundraiser has been much more successful than we had expected. This generous bounty will be used to help transform Max's circumstances beyond material items and help him access residential care. When we allocate funds, a spending ledger will be available upon request to anyone who donated.

Santa Cruz Sentinel News Article of the Attack

SCOTTS VALLEY — Police have arrested two high school students in connection with a serious assault on a homeless man in Santa Cruz.

Scotts Valley police officers detained two students, minors whose names were not released due to their age, shortly before 11 a.m. Monday at the Scotts Valley High School campus, according to Capt. Scott Garner. The arrests were in connection with what was described as “an elderly male was battered” shortly before 8:30 p.m. Friday on the 1400 block of Ocean Street, according to a Santa Cruz Police Department media log.

The teens — including a 14-year-old Santa Cruz resident and a 16-year-old Scotts Valley resident — were booked into Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of felony assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury.

Witnesses to the attack described seeing three juveniles attacking a man and “stomping” on his head, according to a Santa Cruz police release. Investigators later obtained video showing the assault victim running away from the juveniles on Ocean Street before they struck him down and then fled in a vehicle.

The 53-year-old man was transported to Bay Area Trauma Center in critical condition for treatment of head injuries. On Tuesday, Santa Cruz Deputy Chief of Police Jon Bush said the beating victim remained in the hospital recovering from his injuries, but was conscious and speaking. Bush dispelled rumors of the man’s demise, a thread that had run rampant on social media since the teens’ arrest.

Homelessness services provider Brent Adams, who operates the nearby Footbridge Services at the end of Felker Street, said the injured man was one of his clients. He, too, told the Sentinel that he had heard that the man was deceased.

“On the night of the attack, one of my clients arrived asking for a change of clothes because she had blood all over her for trying to save him,” Adams wrote in an email to the Sentinel. “Another client reported to trying to fight the attackers.”

Adams described the injured man as an “unbelievably sweet” person who regularly did odd jobs for Footbridge Services and businesses in the neighborhood. Adams said that the man, though homeless, had long-time connections to the Santa Cruz community.

By JESSICA A. YORK | [email redacted] | Santa Cruz Sentinel

PUBLISHED: October 4, 2022 at 4:43 p.m. | UPDATED: October 4, 2022 at 4:59 p.m.