Spotted in the Murky News today
On Thursday, May 7th, One of our security officers (a really great guy) was shot and killed outside his home a few hours before he was supposed to work. As it turns out, he had already been honored by the city 4 years ago for saving someone's life at a complex just a stone's throw from the office.
San Jose man honored for saving woman's life in 2005 is homicide victim
Nobody saved Juan Mendoza.
There was no one to whisk him away from his front steps, before the bullet was fired.
So two weeks ago the 22-year-old night security guard, who had been celebrated almost four years ago by the city of San Jose for saving somebody else's life, was killed himself.
Mendoza was a young man who saved a stranger from violence only to be caught in its path. The crimes that struck them are unconnected. The woman he saved was allegedly beaten and raped by a parolee institutionalized twice since then; so that trial has yet to begin. Mendoza - who was to be a key witness - died in a cold-blooded street shooting that may be gang-related.
The 42-year-old woman sobbed at her desk at work this week when she found out Mendoza had been slain.
"Here was this person who showed up at the same time as my trust in people had been shattered. I think about what Juan did and it was like God was promising me that "Look, there are good people out there,'' she said. "Now, somehow I feel that he hadn't escaped the evil of that day.''
The Mercury News is not naming the woman because she is the victim of a sexual assault.
It was Oct. 2, 2005 and Mendoza was on his first night on the job at DN Security, patrolling "The Woods" apartment complex.
He heard someone screaming for help. He and other security guards called out from the stairs below, taking cover.
"I had been strangled so much I couldn't really speak,'' the woman said. "I was trying to tell them "He has a gun and he is crazy and he will shoot. Get out of here. Go! Go! Go!''
But Mendoza ran up to the apartment, not away. He looked in through the window at a woman, beaten and tied up.
"Is he in there?'' he asked.
"I don't know,'' she cried.
Mendoza broke down the door and came to her.
"He's working for 7 bucks an hour and he doesn't know me from anybody and he comes up and breaks down the door when I have already told him this guy is insane. He could have been standing right there and shot him.''
Her alleged attacker had left her to buy some drugs. Mendoza untangled the knots, and led her to safety. "Everything is going to be OK,'' he told her over and over to calm her. Then he called police.
They found Robert Otis Mitchell, 39, as he drove back in the victim's car, with crack cocaine and a loaded handgun.
"I don't know anyone that heroic,'' she said. "Who would do that? He didn't know me.''
The suspect, who has been institutionalized both before and after the attack, faces life.
Lawyers were in court Thursday, coming up with a hearing date to determine if he is mentally competent to finally stand trial. Prosecutor Max Zarzana learned of Mendoza's death this week.
"It's tragic,'' Zarzana said. "We oftentimes hear about people who choose not to get involved. This man chose to kick down a door and untie a woman who was screaming that she was going to be murdered. For all he knew he was risking his own life.''
Mendoza was stoic, stone silent during the 2006 ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel in front of hundreds of applauding San Jose police officers. "He was like a jelly bean,'' said his 15-year-old sister, Susie. "He always looked hard from the outside, but he is really soft, when you get to know him.''
Despite his stillness, Mendoza's beaming family knew he was proud that night. His sister ran up to him after he got the plaque and pretended to interview him.
"How does it feel?'' she asked.
"Leave me alone,'' he growled. But he was smiling.
At the same table was the woman he had saved. They said nothing to each other. But after he got the award he came to her and hugged her. She hugged him back, for a long time, saying "Thank you. Thank you.''
Police won't confirm if Mendoza was killed in a gang-related shooting. His family say that he hung out with a hard crowd in his Mount Pleasant High school days but they deny he was ever involved with gangs. So why was he targeted?
"Why is a question we ask ourselves,'' said his father, Hector Mendoza. "We don't know. Maybe they had the wrong place, the wrong person.''
All that really interested him was cars, his family said. He had a long line of them - two del Sols, a Honda, a Nissan, the Regal. His latest One was his favorite - an silver and black Acura RSX that he babied like a spoiled girlfriend. His head was always under the hood or his feet sticking out from underneath. He planned to show it off in car shows, his family said, and he sometimes raced it on the streets late at night.
On May 7, he and his friend were at home, according to a family account, checking out cars on the Internet.
A car drove past, the passengers flashing gang signs, the family said.
It drove past again and Mendoza told his friend that if the car rolled past one more time he would call the cops.
Just about then a man in a ski mask began shooting. The friend was not hit. Mendoza was struck in the chest.
He was the city's 10th homicide victim this year and his case is so far unsolved.
In their grief, Mendoza's family has left his room just like it was - cluttered with car magazines.
And they decided it was time they put Mendoza's framed award from the San Jose police on the living room wall.
"I was always hoping I would find out that he got married or maybe joined the police or something,'' the woman Mendoza saved said "He was someone so beautiful, someone who deserved everything.'
San Jose man honored for saving woman's life in 2005 is homicide victim
Nobody saved Juan Mendoza.
There was no one to whisk him away from his front steps, before the bullet was fired.
So two weeks ago the 22-year-old night security guard, who had been celebrated almost four years ago by the city of San Jose for saving somebody else's life, was killed himself.
Mendoza was a young man who saved a stranger from violence only to be caught in its path. The crimes that struck them are unconnected. The woman he saved was allegedly beaten and raped by a parolee institutionalized twice since then; so that trial has yet to begin. Mendoza - who was to be a key witness - died in a cold-blooded street shooting that may be gang-related.
The 42-year-old woman sobbed at her desk at work this week when she found out Mendoza had been slain.
"Here was this person who showed up at the same time as my trust in people had been shattered. I think about what Juan did and it was like God was promising me that "Look, there are good people out there,'' she said. "Now, somehow I feel that he hadn't escaped the evil of that day.''
The Mercury News is not naming the woman because she is the victim of a sexual assault.
It was Oct. 2, 2005 and Mendoza was on his first night on the job at DN Security, patrolling "The Woods" apartment complex.
He heard someone screaming for help. He and other security guards called out from the stairs below, taking cover.
"I had been strangled so much I couldn't really speak,'' the woman said. "I was trying to tell them "He has a gun and he is crazy and he will shoot. Get out of here. Go! Go! Go!''
But Mendoza ran up to the apartment, not away. He looked in through the window at a woman, beaten and tied up.
"Is he in there?'' he asked.
"I don't know,'' she cried.
Mendoza broke down the door and came to her.
"He's working for 7 bucks an hour and he doesn't know me from anybody and he comes up and breaks down the door when I have already told him this guy is insane. He could have been standing right there and shot him.''
Her alleged attacker had left her to buy some drugs. Mendoza untangled the knots, and led her to safety. "Everything is going to be OK,'' he told her over and over to calm her. Then he called police.
They found Robert Otis Mitchell, 39, as he drove back in the victim's car, with crack cocaine and a loaded handgun.
"I don't know anyone that heroic,'' she said. "Who would do that? He didn't know me.''
The suspect, who has been institutionalized both before and after the attack, faces life.
Lawyers were in court Thursday, coming up with a hearing date to determine if he is mentally competent to finally stand trial. Prosecutor Max Zarzana learned of Mendoza's death this week.
"It's tragic,'' Zarzana said. "We oftentimes hear about people who choose not to get involved. This man chose to kick down a door and untie a woman who was screaming that she was going to be murdered. For all he knew he was risking his own life.''
Mendoza was stoic, stone silent during the 2006 ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel in front of hundreds of applauding San Jose police officers. "He was like a jelly bean,'' said his 15-year-old sister, Susie. "He always looked hard from the outside, but he is really soft, when you get to know him.''
Despite his stillness, Mendoza's beaming family knew he was proud that night. His sister ran up to him after he got the plaque and pretended to interview him.
"How does it feel?'' she asked.
"Leave me alone,'' he growled. But he was smiling.
At the same table was the woman he had saved. They said nothing to each other. But after he got the award he came to her and hugged her. She hugged him back, for a long time, saying "Thank you. Thank you.''
Police won't confirm if Mendoza was killed in a gang-related shooting. His family say that he hung out with a hard crowd in his Mount Pleasant High school days but they deny he was ever involved with gangs. So why was he targeted?
"Why is a question we ask ourselves,'' said his father, Hector Mendoza. "We don't know. Maybe they had the wrong place, the wrong person.''
All that really interested him was cars, his family said. He had a long line of them - two del Sols, a Honda, a Nissan, the Regal. His latest One was his favorite - an silver and black Acura RSX that he babied like a spoiled girlfriend. His head was always under the hood or his feet sticking out from underneath. He planned to show it off in car shows, his family said, and he sometimes raced it on the streets late at night.
On May 7, he and his friend were at home, according to a family account, checking out cars on the Internet.
A car drove past, the passengers flashing gang signs, the family said.
It drove past again and Mendoza told his friend that if the car rolled past one more time he would call the cops.
Just about then a man in a ski mask began shooting. The friend was not hit. Mendoza was struck in the chest.
He was the city's 10th homicide victim this year and his case is so far unsolved.
In their grief, Mendoza's family has left his room just like it was - cluttered with car magazines.
And they decided it was time they put Mendoza's framed award from the San Jose police on the living room wall.
"I was always hoping I would find out that he got married or maybe joined the police or something,'' the woman Mendoza saved said "He was someone so beautiful, someone who deserved everything.'