Right now, Henry Sintay AKA “Jogger Joe”, is sleeping at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and after being booked and housed in Downtown Oakland at the Glenn E. Dyer Detention Facility at 550 6th St, in Downtown Oakland on a charge of 1st degree robbery and with bail set at $100,000.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Sintay will be bussed up to court at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Downtown Oakland for arraignment at 9 AM in Department 112. Sintay will go through all of this without company: he knocked Matt Nelson to the ground at Lake Merritt and took his cell phone. Later in the Nelson’s livestream record that was on Facebook, Sintay could be heard calling for a friend to “run.”
Now, many are asking who that friend was.
To recap what happened, here’s the video and a repeat of what this author explained on June 12th.
On Saturday, June 9th, Mr. Sintay took it upon himself to remove items belonging to an African American homeless man named “Drew” (and for which a Go-Fund-Me page was set up by Kenzie Smith, the man who was harrassed by “BBQ Becky” Jennifer Schulte), and toss them in Lake Merritt, and in a nearby trash bin.
While “Drew” reportedly normally sleeps at the Lake Merritt Columns, he was not at there to see Mr. Sintay, but an Oaklander by the name of Matt Nelson was. As the video above shows, Mr. Nelson questioned Mr. Sintay about why he took the action of throwing a homeless person’s belongings into Lake Merritt, but, and originally unknown to Sintay, was also making a Facebook live video of the conversation.
When Nelson wenr to greet Sintay, trying to fist bump him to hide the fact that he was recording the encounter live, Sintay (who asked another person to Nelson’s left “are you recording”), noticed the cell phone, and as the video shows, went to not only grab it, but assaulted Nelson in the process.
The charge of robbery and the $100,000 bail amount came from Mr. Sintay’s theft of Matt Nelson’s cell phone. In the video, the person who can be heard yelling “run” is not Nelson, but Sintay, and he’s calling out to an unidentified (as of this writing) friend. The
question is who is his friend?
On his Facebook profile, Matt Nelson (who suffered a bruises, a concussion, and a trip to the ER) consistently made mention of a friend of Sintay’s, even though he did not have that person’s name or remember what he looked like.
This is part of what Matt posted on Facebook:
Is this that same dude? UPDATE: Thank you, loved ones! And thanks especially to my amazing nephew, Theo! Henry and his “friend” assaulted me multiple times, I was also dragged by their moving vehicle and hit a few times in the head, but I’m safe now. Still do not have my phone. Please keep calling it and if Henry picks up, I’d like it back. I’ll continue to share the story and folks should feel free to reach out to me here or via email.
QUICK UPDATE #2: Thankful for the ER staff who assessed my injuries and thankful for my hard head! Even more thankful for the kind and loving friends and family who have been looking out for me and taking care of me. And, thankful to my community, who knows that Oakland can be a place where the dignity, safety and full human rights of everyone can be defended, protected, and affirmed. I know we have a long way to go, but I also know we have no choice but to get there…onward!
BRIEF UPDATE #3: I am recovering from a mild concussion, some cuts and bruises, and many sore and strained muscles. Your love, food, joy, outrage, companionship, laughter, rides, check-ins, insight, and incredible displays of compassion have helped me heal and prepared me for the work ahead. Deepest thanks to everyone who has reached out with love and support! You have taken care of me, and for this, I am deeply grateful.
And let’s not lose focus: HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT. While my wounds will heal, the deep wounds of inequality and injustice in #Oakland will fester unless we dramatically improve how we treat our neighbors who are unhoused, unsheltered, or on the verge of losing their housing. This is a moral and cultural issue and a reflection of our values as much (or more) than it is a policy and civil code issue. And our values and morals must guide our political decisions. We can do much better by our people. And to achieve this, we need you and the love you’ve shown me to lead us forward to a town rooted in full dignity and human rights for all.
UPDATE #4: I’m relieved that one of the men who robbed and assaulted me (Henry) has been taken into custody. He should be held accountable for his actions, including his abuse of Drew. While what happened to me was horrible, it does not begin to compare with the daily mistreatment of our neighbors who are unhoused, homeless, or unsheltered.
So, from this, there were two men who “robbed and assaulted” Matt, not one. The video at the start of this blog post focuses on the start of Mr. Nelson’s livestream. For the first 20 seconds, there’s another man who’s using a cell phone to record the water for some reason, and talking to Mr. Sintay, with his back to Mr. Nelson’s camera. We get just a glimpse of part of his facial profile. About the same height as Sintay, who’s six feet, he appears to be Indian but American. That’s the only time we see him.
At the end of Mr. Nelson’s video, as Sintay is running with the active cell phone, you can hear him say “run. T. run. And then repeat the name “T”. It’s clear Sintay had help.
Stay tuned.