/

Sunday Shooting Victim Identified as Novato Man, GoFundMe campaign targets $50K toward recovery

1 min read
41

The victim of Sunday evening’s shooting/robbery near the Emeryville Amtrak station has been identified by the Marin Independent Journal as 26-year-old Alex Madias of Novato. There have been no arrests and no suspect information has been released to the public.

Madias was picking up a friend at the station when the armed robber approached him, demanded money, and shot Madias in the head. It is unknown if there was a struggle and the friend that Alex was there to pick up was uninjured.

Madias is hospitalized at a trauma center in the East Bay and is said to be in is critical but stable condition according to Madias’ brother Theo. “The shot was through the head, left side of the brain,” noted the older brother in the MarinIJ.com report. “They just started him today breathing on his own.”


ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
“noccs-enrollment-2021-sq”

“The next 24 to 48 hours will be crucial for telling his recovery,” according to the Madias’ family’s priest.

Madias is married and works as a software engineer at FICO. He earned a computer science degree in 2016 at Sonoma State University.


ADVERTISEMENT
“ee-sq-ad”

The shooting comes on the heels of another recent high-profile double shooting near the Target parking lot that claimed the life of 19-year-old Eondre Bolton of Richmond. While the Target shooting was described as a drug deal gone bad, Madias appeared to be a random robbery target.

Novato man critically injured in Emeryville robbery

By Gary Klien

A Novato man suffered a gunshot to the head during a robbery near the Amtrak station in Emeryville.

Alex Madias, 26, was shot shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday at 59th and Horton streets. The gunman ran off and has not been found, police said.

Madias’ brother Theo, 28, said his condition is critical but stable. Madias is hospitalized at a trauma center in the East Bay.

Read More on the Marin Independent Journal →

Never Miss a Story!

Subscribe to Emeryville’s only dedicated news source.

Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

41 Comments

      • Emeryville has affordability programs and is a safe place to live or live near. It’s chock full of fun things to do and places to eat and shop. A couple of incidents doesn’t isn’t reflective of every day life. Cheer up Anonymous, nobody hurt you.

  1. City council: violent crime is unacceptable here in Emeryville!!! We are not Oakland or Berkeley where this kind of stuff happens. The new transit station needs to be a safe place for everyone. It’s time to install license plate readers, like Alameda.

    • Alameda has some unique geography that I don’t think would work in Emeryville. My personal stance is that City Council needs to stop undermining our force and let them do their job. The EPD was the shining star among forces in the East Bay for a long time. It wasn’t broken and it didn’t need to be fixed.

    • In addition: Emeryville has a unique advantage over Berkeley and Oakland. That advantage is that it’s an incredibly small city and an increased police presence could have a much bigger and more direct effect. City council needs to find their spines and get proactive about this or we need to vote them the hell out.

  2. Hopefully Mayor Bauters and the other members of our city council will donate generously to this fund, being that it is their “progressive” policies on law enforcement that have created the conditions under which this young man is struggling for his life.

    • City Council’s “progressive” policies of undermining the police department, actively discouraging proactive policing, discouraging enforcement of nonviolent theft, and creating ordinances that make it time consuming and expensive for the police to deal with homeless population and trash are all ingredients that accumulate to an ALL SYSTEMS GO signal to desperate and criminal acts. This is a heartbreaking situation for this man and his family, as it is for everyone in this community. Where there is one, without action, there will be more.

      • For sure “progressive” policies have helped contribute to a bunch of shootings/robberies in the past few years.

        And instead of progress, these policies end up hurting poor people the most. Too many of them grow up in cultures of lawlessness. If you see people on the street using and selling drugs, pitching tents on the street…you end up thinking all of this deviant behavior is normal.

        If West Oakland/Emeryville are going to allow people to live outside, they should join together and make fairly nice green space for the homeless but in return monitor the area 24/7 and arrest the law breakers.

  3. Time to leave Emeryville. I can’t keep my family here. Emeryville has gotten noticeably more violent in the last 6-9 months. I don’t have stats, just personal experiences but we’ve had a few encounters in areas that were previously fine.

    • I had to break up a fight while shopping at the Emeryville Target a few months ago. I somehow found myself holding back one man with a bottle of wine he’d grabbed from a shelf to prevent him from beating another handicapped man who was intoxicated and had fallen on the floor who was shouting names at him and his pregnant wife.

      On the upside, Target was having a “break up a fight, get your next purchase free” sale, so in exchange for physically restraining a large man with an improvised weapon in the Bed and Bath section, they paid for my purchase. That’s customer service!!

      Has anyone else noticed the rash of “Do not leave ANYTHING in your car” signs that have sprung up like daisies in every parking lot in Emeryville? They go nicely with the shattered glass and pervasive smell of urine.

      We have truly put the “P” in “Progressive”.

      • This is what City Hall wants. Citizens to be doing the dirty work.

        They’re busy doing what SEIU tells them they have to do in order to keep their office.

        Wake up folks.

  4. I’m just going to leave this here from the December police blotter. Any of these sound familiar?

    Starting a few months ago, at the request of a city council member, the police began removing race and physical descriptions from their public reports.

    You have three kids with a gun and some 20 year olds who have now put a bullet through a young man’s skull running around our neighborhood holding people up but guess what: YOU aren’t allowed to know what the people who are robbing and shooting us look like. Nope. Only the police can know.

    Why, you ask?

    Because YOU can’t be trusted. You might racially profile someone. Never mind the strong arm robberies and the shooting and the 13 year olds with guns in your neighborhood. They are not the problem.

    We need to protect the community from YOU, yes YOU. YOU are a potential racist who can’t be trusted.

    Welcome to Emeryville.

    (And guess what, the shooter is still at large, but you still can’t know what he looks like. YOU really are a threat to the safety and security of the community.)

    Robbery

    The Public Market 5959 Shellmound St. (near the pedestrian overcrossing): An attempted robbery AT GUNPOINT occurred. Three male JUVENILES, 12-13 years old, one with a gun, demanded a females’ purse. The victim refused, and pushed the gun aside. The suspects then fled the area. The victim thought the juvenile had a BB gun.

    5959 Shellmound St (Pedestrian Overcrossing): A STRONGARM ROBBERY occurred. LOSS: A wallet, a cellphone, and a gold wedding band. Suspects: (3) Males, early 20s.

    IFO 6001 Shellmound St.: A STRONGARM ROBBERY occurred. LOSS: Purse. Suspects: (3) Males, early 20s. Suspect Vehicle: Silver sedan, no further description.

    • Some really poor decisions of the city council are backfiring.

      Ultimately, voters have to vote to kick these people out of office.

    • Whoever the anonymous person who cited “violence in the United States has been falling for year” should look at more specific data. And by specific data I mean data that relates to crimes, both violent and non, in Emeryville, and surrounding areas. It is going up. There wouldn’t be this many replies within this (and other) social media sites if there wasn’t an increase and residents weren’t generally concerned. And concerned is the lightest way to put it. A more appropriate description would be shocked, scared, terrified. All words that have been associated with these recent posts.

      Police need to be able to have descriptions of who these suspects are. Police need to have as much data, consistently as possible to be effective at their jobs and keep people safe. As of now, they are only to go off that “someone” might have a gun, might have tried to rob someone, or break into a car. If they knew what that person looked like, the clothes they are wearing, their height and yes their potential race (I hear the gasps going out now, god forbid) it would go a long way in helping to stop potential future crimes and keep law abiding residents, business owners and people who patronize our local stores safe.

      Meanwhile we have car break-ins EVERY single day. Businesses are being targeted, such as the Subway behind the public market being help up at gunpoint a few weeks ago. And now, most recently, a 26 year old who shot in the head while being robbed. Simply because he made the unfortunate mistake of dropping off a friend at the Amtrak in Emeryville. And the person responsible is out and about, probably targeting more people, probably still in our area.

      • That anonymous person was actually just repeating an article your Mayor retweeted. The Mayor’s day job is as a lobbyist for https://safeandjust.org/about-us/ who lobbies in favor of Prop 47 and a host of progressive policies that basically can be summarized as “we need to be a whole lot nicer to criminals”. (I’m sure they would take offense at calling people who commit crimes “criminals”, or even “offenders”, but I don’t know what the correct term is, maybe “formerly incarcerated”?)

        The police do have descriptions of suspects. That information is only being blocked from the public. This was done at the request apparently of someone on city council who gave direction to the city manager (without public discussion or a vote) to require the police to censor race from their crime summaries. Mentioning the race of a suspect in a crime is apparently racist. ( http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2017/11/follow-up-friday-racist-stereotyping-at.html )

        I would like to know which of the city councilmembers did this so that the victim of Sunday night’s shooting can thank them personally (if he is still able to speak).

      • After two months, he is not yet able to speak. Perhaps after extensive physical therapy, he will be able to speak again.

  5. Its really too bad. My wife and I absolutely loved our 8 years at Watergate and enjoyed being a part of Emeryville’s renaissance. While I’m generally wary of police, I found EPD to be upstanding professionals who upheld civil liberties without compromising responsiveness. It is disappointing to learn that pollyannish political grandstanding has undermined public safety and eroded rule of law.

  6. Meanwhile our current mayor is silent on these issues but so proud of all he has done to jump on the progressive bandwagon with all of the progressive cool kids.

    You all need to oust this fool, Medina, and Martinez.

  7. @ChiefTejada,

    Since Mr Madias had a bullet put through his skull on Sunday night, as of Friday morning, you and your department have not published one damn thing in support of the family or communicating anything regarding the criminal at large, the victim’s status, or the crime.

    Instead, today you retweeted that Emeryville Police are “excited” to be participating in Compassion Cultivation Training at the end of the month which apparently “is an eight-week program designed to develop the qualities of compassion, empathy, and kindness for oneself and for others.” https://www.compassioninstitute.com/cct

    Respectfully, fuck that.

    This is the last thing EPD and the officers here need. I’ve met quite a few of them and they are compassionate beyond words. They certainly do not need to “choose to nurture and grow the compassionate instinct, like a plant that is carefully cultivated from a seed.” Their compassionate instinct is a god damn redwood tree already.

    What they need right now is to be allowed to act like a police force with the strength, courage, and conviction that led them to choose to be police officers to begin with. And right now, that is not about meditating and mindfulness. It is not about empathy and compassion. It is about being angry that you let a young man get shot while dropping off his friend at Amtrak on your watch, that YOUR police force is letting people get mugged and robbed at a rapidly increasing rate, and that you aren’t able to stop it.

    Listen to your officers. They get it. You apparently do not.

    Stop screwing around with the progressive, touch-feely, if-I-only-loved-myself-more-and-breathed-cleansing-breaths-then-everything-will-be-peaches-and-ponies rubbish.

    The lack of empathy and compassion you presume your officers are suffering from is NOT the problem. It’s the lack of empathy and compassion shown by the guy who put a gun to Mr Madias’ head and pulled the trigger. Will he be attending your class and doing the “Real-world “homework” assignments to practice compassionate thoughts and actions”? I suspect not given that YOU apparently haven’t caught him yet.

    Our police were doing a fantastic job until recently. What happened? Where the hell are you when it comes to fighting crime? Do you ever spend time working on that? That is your job, not making police officers into ever-smiling youth counselors at Camp Mindfulness.

    Are you seriously asking grown men and women who can get themselves shot on our behalf every damn day to do “daily meditation practices to develop loving kindness, empathy, and compassion”.

    Let’s take a break from the incense and discount rack pop psychology and maybe focus for just a few minutes on taking criminals off Emeryville’s streets.

    There are plenty to choose from.

    And once you actually catch one, by all means, talk to them all you want about cultivating compassion.

    Sincerely,
    Emeryville

    • Whoever this is – spot on, nailed it and thank you! The only aspect of any of this that has been hopeful is the frustration and anger that we as residents are now feeling, and expressing that is being shown in these forums.
      @City Council – grow spines. Numerous Emeryville police officers have told me that the police has to take direction from the chief of police. And the chief of police takes her direction from City Council. Therefor, City Council has the quickest and most direct ability to start affecting change in our city. So do it. Listen to your residents. Emeryville has a very unique opportunity that no other city in the Bay Area has. That opportunity is that we have a very small city which makes it easier to affect change. The police force can be more omnipresent, in more parts of the city, which will help reduce crime (the presence of visible officers would make would be criminals think twice about mugging a person, breaking into a car or shooting someone in the head). The police can be dispatched to a crime spot faster (which could help stop a potential crime in progress, reduce the effect of the crime being committed and/or catch the criminals before the escape). I can think of other aspects as well.

      • It’s insulting how city leadership has basically blown off their basic duty to acknowledge, much less respond, to the real issues we are seeing today. Again in a town that is not even 2 square miles in size.

        Our HOA is attempting to arrange a meeting with City Hall and the EPD to see what they have to say on the rising crime in our community.

        I would not be at all surprised if they blew off the request, but I think we need to start letting them know we are wondering what is going on and what are they doing about it.

        I’d recommend you all do the same with your respective communities.

      • Anon. 10:24, I’d love to attend and cover if you’d be amenable. Please reach out. If they’re unresponsive, let me know as well because that’s also a story.

      • The main assumption you have to overcome when understanding Emeryville is that the current city council doesn’t really have any interest in representing the residents.

        They represent a special interest group called RULE which, ironically, stands for Residents United for a Livable Emeryville. They also represent the SEIU. And finally, they represent themselves.

        Bauters (semi-RULE) is working on train noise on the tracks adjacent to his house and promoting Prop 47 initiatives related to his job. He’s also working on his political resume which is mainly about establishing credibility with progressives. He’s aiming for Emeryville to pay for various housing bonds to help him with his political career.

        Donahue (RULE), an artist, is working on getting various arts related initiative in Emeryville including the city being designated an arts region and apparently getting a big art show facility of some sort built on the taxpayer’s dime.

        Martinez (RULE) has political aspirations and is working on headlines and building a power base for herself. She’s using Emeryville to build political credibility with the unions by backing and standing out in front of the highest in the nation Minimum Wage and Fair Workweek.

        Medina (RULE) is a former (current?) SEIU representative who seems mainly to be along for the ride with Martinez.

        Patz (RULE), not sure about him. He seems very much part of the RULE contingent and very much affiliated with the Tattler guy.

        If you are looking to Emeryville City Council for leadership and a sincere effort to represent the interests of the residents, you’re in the wrong city.

      • Posted by the victim’s brother around 3pm Friday on the gofundme:

        “Alex continues to stay stable, which for the next few days is critical to any REAL healing that can bring him back to us. His strength is dependent on him right now, but the moral support we give him is a clear reflection of the community around us that has kept our family going. We love each of you for your contribution to Alex’s success and turn-around. We cannot begin to thank you enough.”

      • Organizing as homeowner associations and other neighborhood organizations is a great idea. I’ll be getting mine in motion as well.

      • Totally agree regarding HOA’s and other community groups as a means of organizing. 5-10 HOA’s working together could easily elect some good candidates that were more representative of the community.

        There were some great candidates in the last election that seemed less like politicians and more genuinely concerned about the community. They didn’t win but they seemed more like people who would ‘do the right thing’. I hope they’ll run again!!

  8. You’ve gotten the police chief’s attention:
    https://twitter.com/ChiefTejada/status/964685840818479104?s=20

    I truly respect that she responded and that she’s on the beat tonight. Thank you Chief Tejada for that.

    Now that you have EPD’s attention, what are you going to do with it? What would you like to see? What do you like and not like? What would you like changed?

    Please use the opportunity that’s been created, assume the entire EPD is now following this thread (and they are), and speak your mind about the topic of this article, what’s been happening in the community, or anything else you’d like to express positive or negative.

    Hopefully we can keep the conversation going. Now is not the time for silence or political correctness or towing the party line. Say what you think. EPD officers are invited to comment anonymously as well.

    We have an opportunity here. An actual moment where things can change for the better. Please take it.

    • Ok, I’ll start. Up until yesterday and since Jan 2017, by my quick count, @ChiefTejada has posted/retweeted about “meditation” and “mindfulness” on her Twitter account 51 times. https://twitter.com/ChiefTejada?lang=en

      Up until yesterday, she has posted about going out on patrol with her officers just once https://twitter.com/ChiefTejada/status/872886730088628224 Yesterday was the second time.

      All well and good if crime is falling. Not if crime is rising and you’re chief of a city one mile square. Maybe she’s out working with her officers and seeing what’s going on in the community on the beat all the time and just never mentions it.

      It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem likely. And the optics are terrible in any case.

      MY REQUEST: get out on the beat, hear your officer’s concerns directly, and shift your and our attention from mindfulness/meditation to fighting crime and the work your officers are doing.

      #priorities

      • @ChiefTejada responded by locking her Twitter account so the public can’t read her comments any more…

        ????????????⛔️⛔️⛔️

Leave a Reply

Previous Story

Black History Month Special: Golden Gate Key & Lock – A 3rd Generation Black-Owned Family Business returns to Emeryville

Next Story

Dee Spot Cafe, Propaganda Gastropub among latest Emeryville Small Business Closures and stalled projects

Support Local News for the Emeryville Community and get free Merch!

Become a recurring E’ville Eye supporter for as little as $5 per month and get a FREE custom tee or cap (minimum one year commitment).

Support Hyperlocal News →

You have Successfully Subscribed!