"fried fish and French fries"

"There are shootings every other day..
I hate to admit it that I am becoming desensitized, to knowing that everyday there is a shooting, while there is someone who is killed or hurt everyday."

I am in a different world.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A man who was shot while feeding the homeless with his family in East Oakland early Wednesday morning has succumbed to his injuries, a police spokeswoman said.

Police responded to the 1000 block of 47th Avenue at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday after someone flagged down a California Highway Patrol officer to report the shooting, Oakland police Sgt. Holly Joshi said.

Officers found the man and his wife suffering from gunshot wounds, and they were taken to a hospital. The woman's injuries were minor but the man died at the hospital, Joshi said today.

Police have not released his name, but published reports state that he was known in the neighborhood as "Brother John," and that he often fed the homeless. Joshi said the couple and their two young children had been handing out food to people in the area and had pulled over to the side of the road.

An unknown suspect then pulled up alongside them and began shooting, Joshi said.

"It is a case of mistaken gang-wars, drug abuse, anger, unfairness."


OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The only way police can describe it is a "senseless act." A man is clinging to life after being shot in the head while feeding the homeless in East Oakland early Wednesday morning.

It's not looking good. Police call these life threatening injuries. The man is on life support at a hospital in Oakland and homicide investigators are on this case. In addition to the man's wife being shot, a police source tells ABC7 one of the man's young daughters was also struck by a bullet. She and her mom are both expected to survive.

He is known simply as Brother John and just about everyone in the area knows him. At least once a week, Brother John, his wife and their two young daughters pass out home-cooked meals to East Oakland's homeless.

"He stops right in the middle of the road and gives you some food," Tony said.
"He came out here and fed us last night -- fried fish and French fries," Roxanne said.

That fish meal served in the shadow of the BART tracks and out of the back of Brother John's van on 47th Avenue may be his last and a man named Bill could be the last man he ever helped.

"He passed Brother John's van, he stopped and he backed up, then all of a sudden three shots, I ducked, then two more shots," Bill said.

The shooter fired into the van with 29-year-old Brother John and his family sitting inside.
Police do not have a motive for a shooting they can only describe as senseless.

"They were just trying to do a good deed and feed people that were less fortunate than they were," Oakland Police Offc. John Scott said.

And while everyone on these streets knows Brother John's name, few seem to know more about him than that.

Except Bill, who has called these streets home for more than 20 years. Once Brother John looked for help from the one person he was there to serve.

"One time he was going to stop because he said, 'You know, Bill, I don't think people appreciate what I do for them,' I said, 'Brother John, as long as one person appreciates what you do for them, that's good,'" Bill asid.

Wednesday, there was nothing but appreciation for Brother John and the kindness he showed for those who don't often get it -- appreciation and anger.

"That man don't have an enemy; it was a senseless killing," Bill said.

Police are not releasing Brother John's identity for his safety. The witness, Bill, says the shooter was alone in an older model turquoise Astro van. There is a $25,000 reward for an arrest in the case.

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The East Coast–West Coast Hip Hop Rivalry was a feud in the early-mid 1990s between artists and fans of the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop scenes. Seeming focal points of the feud were East Coast-based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (and his label, Bad Boy Records), and West Coast-based rapper 2Pac (and his label, Death Row Records), both of whom were murdered.

The Notorious B.I.G.
Born in St. Mary's Hospital, despite later claiming to be raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Wallace grew up in neighboring Clinton Hill. Wallace was the only child of Voletta Wallace, a Jamaican preschool teacher, and George Latore, a welder and small-time Jamaican politician. His father left the family when Wallace was two years old, leaving his mother to work two jobs while raising him. At the Queen of All Saints Middle School, Wallace excelled in class, winning several awards as an English student. He was nicknamed "Big" because of his size before he turned 10. At the age of 12, he began selling drugs. His mother, often away at work, did not know that her son was selling drugs until Wallace was an adult.

2Pac
Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare, Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur's friend and promoter Leila Steinberg to find "the sea of books" once owned by Shakur.

Shakur never professed following a particular religion, but his lyrics in singles such as 'Only God Can Judge Me' and poems such as The Rose That Grew from Concrete suggests he believed in God. This means many analysts currently describe him as a deist. He believed in Karma, but rejected a literal afterlife and organized religion.

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The Rose that Grew from Concrete

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?

Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.

Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.

Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

Tupac Shakur