Sad event at Berkeley

Promising life ends in blaze of gunfire
Ivy League student, 19, slain in Berkeley
Demian Bulwa, Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writers

Monday, July 18, 2005

Meleia Willis-Starbuck's idealism stood out even in her Berkeley
hometown.

Outspoken, smart and ambitious, the 19-year-old woman had traveled to
Cuba and Vietnam as part of a social justice program in high school,
and, after two years on scholarship at Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire, returned to Berkeley this summer for a coveted internship:
helping homeless women and children.

But on Sunday, Willis-Starbuck's life ended in a seemingly senseless
shooting 3 1/2 blocks south of the UC Berkeley campus.

"She was the person who brought people together," said Danielle
Youngblood, a friend who attended Berkeley High with Willis-Starbuck
and now goes to Howard University in Washington, D.C. Motioning to
dozens of mourners who gathered at the spot where Willis-Starbuck was
gunned down, just outside her sublet apartment on College Avenue,
Youngblood added, "She's been ripped away, and this is the outcry."

Berkeley police are investigating whether the 1:45 a.m. homicide --
Berkeley's second killing this year -- was related to an argument that
had started only minutes earlier, between a group of young men and a
group of young women, including Willis-Starbuck.

Youngblood, who was with Willis-Starbuck when she died, described the
events that led to the shooting.

Willis-Starbuck spent Saturday night with a group of women friends from
her old high school. The group was outside a UC Berkeley dormitory just
across the street from Willis-Starbuck's apartment. Inside the
dormitory, a dance for the Summer Bridge program, which helps at-risk
students prepare for their first year of college, had ended and let
out.

A group of about seven young men walked by Willis-Starbuck and her
friends, said they were Cal students, and asked the women to party with
them. When rebuffed, they called the women "bitches" and an argument
between the men and women ensued, Youngblood said.

The word offended the women, and they explained to the men why it was
hurtful, she said. Willis-Starbuck asked the men whether they would
call their mothers such a name, Youngblood said. The men then
apologized. The argument appeared to be over and the women had crossed
the street in front of Willis- Starbuck's apartment when a car drove up
Dwight Way. From approximately half a block away, a man got out and
fired several rounds toward the women as they were getting into a
friend's parked Ford Explorer.

Willis-Starbuck was the last one outside the car, where she was still
talking with some of the men.

"We heard three shots, and I yelled 'Everybody get down!' " Youngblood
said.

Youngblood got out of the passenger seat, and crawled on the ground to
Willis-Starbuck, who was hunched under a tree near the street. She was
bleeding from the chest.

"I touched my friend to see if she was OK. She still had a pulse. I ran
to see who shot at her. There was nobody," Youngblood said.

While the friends waited for help to arrive, they urged Willis-Starbuck
to hang on. "We just tried to let her know we were there, and to stay
with us, " Youngblood said. "Unfortunately, she didn't."

No one else was hit in the shooting. Police are looking for the killer,
described as a black man of thin build in his 20s, wearing jeans and a
white T- shirt, and last seen in a car heading east on Dwight Way.

"It's extremely rare to have crime of this magnitude in this
neighborhood, " Berkeley police spokesman Joe Okies said.

As news of the killing spread Sunday, people gathered near the corner
of Dwight Way and College Avenue to leave flowers and candles and write
messages to Willis-Starbuck on the sidewalk with chalk.

"I just know that as a parent, we're always saying, 'It's not that we
don't trust you guys -- it's that we don't trust the other people out
there, " said Vikki Davis of Berkeley, who went to the sidewalk
memorial to mourn with others. "This is a parent's worst fear. This is
not a dropout hanging on a street corner. This is an Ivy League
student.''

Willis-Starbuck emerged as a leader at Berkeley High, where she
excelled in the social justice "school within a school" communication,
arts and sciences program.

She went on a class trip to Cuba, and was influenced by studying the
country's state-sponsored health care and education systems. She once
served as president of the Berkeley High Black Student Union, and
volunteered in a homeless soup kitchen and a center serving
disadvantaged youth.

She was working at the Women's Daytime Drop-In Center in Berkeley this
summer as part of Dartmouth's Partners in Community Service program
that links inspiring students with community service projects. A
double-major in sociology and African American studies, Willis-Starbuck
continued her volunteerism while at Dartmouth, joining the African
American Society, the Dartmouth Alliance for Children of Color and the
Dartmouth College Greens.

"She was a beautiful young woman. At Berkeley High, she was always
trying to fight the cause of the 'at risk' kids," said Irma Parker of
Berkeley, who runs the parent resource center at Berkeley High.

Willis-Starbuck grew up in Berkeley with her parents and a younger
brother, and her parents moved to Georgia two years ago.

Mercedes Hong of Berkeley was among those who visited with mourners at
the tree where Willis-Starbuck died, outside her apartment window. "She
was very outspoken, very vibrant. She had tons of friends because she
had the type of personality that attracted people," said Hong, who was
planning to make Willis-Starbuck the godmother of her yet-to-be-born
baby girl.

Willis-Starbuck hosted a baby shower for Hong at her home in the
Berkshire Apartments last month. "I'm just shocked right now -- I feel
dead inside," Hong said. "When you are so used to seeing someone on a
daily basis, it doesn't make sense that you're not going to see them
anymore."