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Always listen, watch closely and retain as much as possible. Those traits are vital for journalists because we never know when or how a story may evolve, but we must remain ready.
That’s particularly true of potential homicide cases because of how long it can take for the law enforcement investigation and/or criminal court proceedings to play out to completion. As the new year beckons, I have more than a few fatality cases on my mind as I look back over 2023.
Including one that I don’t think has been publicly reported until now.
I mentioned previously about how the Livermore Police Department released a safety advisory video in September stating that every traffic fatality in the city’s jurisdiction in 2023 (to that point) involved a decedent who was not wearing a seat belt. That message indirectly confirmed new information about the investigation into winery owner Mitchell Katz’s death.
But my ears perked up — and my heart sank a bit too — for another reason watching that video: Police officials said there had been three fatal crashes investigated by LPD through the summer … Hmm, three?
I only remembered us covering two in the city’s jurisdiction: one on East Avenue from July and one on Airway Boulevard in January. While other traffic fatalities occurred in Livermore during 2023, they were either on or adjacent to the freeway or in the unincorporated area (i.e. California Highway Patrol jurisdiction).
Over recent weeks, I have been able to confirm with LPD there was in fact a traffic-related death in Livermore in June that the department investigated but did not report about publicly – and we missed, as did apparently all the other news media in the area, which I take seriously too because really it’s up to catch wind of these stories one way or another.
Our editorial staff wrestled with whether or how to cover this additional case, since we obtained the information when it was months old. We certainly don’t want to trigger any unnecessary new trauma for the decedent’s family or others involved.
Ultimately, I landed with my original gut feeling: Death investigations are probably the most important undertaken by law enforcement, so we have an obligation to report to the community (ethically and empathetically) about every traffic fatality in our coverage area. No matter when we first find out about it.
The two-vehicle collision occurred at around 3:50 p.m. June 13 at First Street and North Mines Road, the south corner of the Lowe’s shopping center, a prominent intersection between the freeway and downtown.
The driver of a red Toyota Corolla was stopped at the traffic light on southbound First Street ready to make a left onto North Mines Road, according to LPD. When the signal turned green for straight lanes in both directions, witnesses said the driver appeared to mistakenly think his arrow switched to green. The Corolla turned into the intersection on a red light and collided with a northbound Ford Focus.
Livermore resident George Medeiros suffered a major head injury when his Corolla crashed that afternoon, and he died at an area hospital the next day, police said. The 62-year-old was a devoted husband, father and grandfather who worked for years at San Francisco International Airport, according to a family obituary I found online.
As for why LPD didn’t publicly report on the case before the Weekly’s inquiry this fall, spokesperson Azenith Smith said, “(He) did not die at the scene and at the conclusion of the investigation, it was determined he was at fault for not wearing a seatbelt and running a red. We wanted to be respectful of his family/loved ones by not publicizing the specific circumstances of his death.”
I’m still surprised that LPD didn’t put out a traffic advisory that afternoon for a serious crash at a well-traveled intersection, let alone a press release after finding out he died at the hospital or at least a call for prospective witnesses.
Smith told me, “We consider very carefully what information to disseminate to the public. We must balance what information to release weighing the investigation, need to know vs. want to know, care and consideration for the victims and victims’ family, and how much the community was impacted.”
“We provide information about a traffic fatality on a case-by-case basis,” she added. “We do not publicly provide specific details of an individual traffic collision unless there’s an identifiable public safety threat or a great community impact. We focus on public safety trends and generalities.”
I have no desire to speculate, but I certainly haven’t found anything to indicate something hinky went into the lack of reporting on the June crash. LPD officials have a pretty good record with public information in my decade here.
But, I will say too: As a rule, I always balk at a government entity saying essentially they get to pick and choose when to volunteer details about a major, newsworthy situation in their jurisdiction; I only hear that in the reverse, to actually mean they get to pick and choose when to keep things secret. I’m kind of stubborn that way.
After getting the incident narrative, I did visit the scene in front of Lowe’s last week to get a lay of the land. There was really no evidence a fatal crash had occurred there almost six months earlier.
Being on the ground did give me a tangible sense, though, of just how close this fatal crash was to the city’s fourth that occurred in October just over a mile away at North Mines Road and Shirley Way.
It’s one thing to look at the short distance on Google Maps; it’s another to actually drive it. And when you factor in the Katz crash site, that’s three fatal collisions in less than a 1.5-mile radius on city streets in just over four months.
Another 2023 fatality investigation I’ve learned has now been completed is the deadly fire on Mayan Court in Dublin from January.
We reported on the blaze in a breaking news fashion at the time, but the investigation took nearly six months to complete.
In the end, authorities determined that 86-year-old Dorothy Jane Abel died from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out on the afternoon of Jan. 23 in an electrical receptacle behind a hutch in the family room and spread to other parts of the house, according to the report by deputy fire marshal Andrew Lee.
Other family members were at the house but could not reach the elderly woman before firefighters arrived due to the intensity of the smoke and heat from the fire, according to Lee’s final report and supporting materials – which were provided in full to me recently by the Alameda County Fire Department. The case was classified as an accidental electrical fire.
We have a number of other pending Tri-Valley fatality investigations from the last year, including at least a half-dozen deadly crashes mainly in the CHP jurisdiction – those can take months to a year or more to complete, when factoring in toxicology testing and prosecutors’ deliberations, if necessary. And usually we have to be proactive in asking for updates on such lengthy cases.
We’ll continue to track the outcome of the investigation into the death of a Las Positas College student on campus on the morning of Nov. 15, although authorities say it appears no crime occurred and there was no threat to the public at the time.
I’ve been told the May 1 stabbing death of Edevion White inside his Owens Drive apartment is still unsolved, but Pleasanton police remain actively working the case.
This time of year, my mind often turns to the family of aspiring rapper Lil Yase, who was gunned down in Dublin on Nov. 28, 2020, as formal homicide charges have still never materialized against two prime suspects for evidentiary reasons.
I also recently looked back over my “Pending Investigations” spreadsheet, which I created some years back to help me track unsolved cases, a list that still includes two out-of-area plane crashes with local victims ( 2014 and 2018), a failed parachute skydive and a forklift accident among many others.
I need to carve out time to investigate what happened with some of those and contribute to some public closure of those notable cases. After all, given how much time has passed, I’ve probably missed something.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly.