Woman from SLO murdered in Berkeley, political activist arrested

January 12, 2017
Emilie Inman

Emilie Inman

A 27-year-old teacher who spent her teenage years in San Luis Obispo was stabbed to death in her Berkeley home last week. The murder of SLO High School graduate Emilie Inman has made national headlines.

Officers have arrested Pablo Gomez Jr., 22, for the murder of Inman, a nature program educator in the East Bay. Gomez, a UC Berkeley student and political activist, is also accused of stabbing another woman who survived the attack.

A motive in the attack has yet to emerge. Inman reportedly did not know Gomez.

Gomez was a senior climate action fellow at the Alliance for Climate Education, an organization that still features him prominently on his website. Gomez was also actively involved with the UC Berkeley Queer Alliance and Resource Center.

The Berkeley student was a frequent protester, who in July, posted on Facebook that he was sitting on the Oakland Freeway with thousands of other demonstrators.

Pablo Gomez Jr.

Pablo Gomez Jr.

“Our demands at this moment stand to disarm the police and work to abolish our current police structure. Our demands will not stop at abolishing the police. We will transform every structure that is poisoned by a toxic whiteness that threatens black lives every day,” Gomez wrote.

Gomez posted frequently on Facebook in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. He also posted in support of Palestine and against Israel.

On Friday, the woman who was wounded in the stabbing flagged down a passerby, prompting the police to come to the scene. Officers later found Inman’s body inside her house. Inman was reported missing earlier in the day.

Police arrested Gomez on Saturday in Burbank. Gomez is from Los Angeles.

Following Gomez’s arrest, the case began making national news due to the murder suspect’s political activism, particularly in the sphere of LGBT issues. A friend of Gomez contacted Berkeleyside, a local news site, to inform the publication that Gomez does not consider himself a “he.” Rather, Gomez refers to himself using the pronoun “they.”

Berkeleyside then altered its story so that it contained Gomez’s pronoun of choice. The correction drew reactions from conservative media.

Additionally, conservative political commentator Ann Coulter posted a link on social media to an Alliance for Climate Education web page that she said showed Gomez posing in a photo with California Gov. Jerry Brown. The URL for the page indicates it contained a blog post authored by Gomez, but the content has been taken down.

Originally from France, Inman moved with her family to San Luis Obispo when she was 10 years old. After graduating from SLO High, Inman attended UC Santa Cruz, from which she received an environmental studies degree.

Inman was working as a nature program educator at Sienna Ranch in Lafayette at the time of her murder. Sienna Ranch has posted a public tribute to Inman on its Facebook page.

“Emilie Inman was a brilliant, passionate, creative teacher and a sparkling, joyful, sincere person,” a the Facebook post states. “Emilie challenged her students and her coworkers to be their best selves, to live life bravely and beautifully. The memories of the compassion and conviction with which she lived her life will continue to serve as enduring lessons to all those who knew her.”

Sienna Ranch said it has been inundated with messages from the families of past and present students who were touched by Inman’s teaching.

In addition to teaching, Inman created art and music. She maintained a SoundCloud profile, on which she published her music.

A memorial for Inman was held this week in San Luis Obispo.


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• First, my condolences to Emilie’s family, a terrible loss of

a beautiful productive person, my prayers goes out to them.

I know Pablo Gomez Jr. parents for many years, his father I

can truly say that I have know him for over 30 years, they are both hard

working folks of good moral values. They raised their children to be

respectful, truthful, law abiding, to use good judgment, and that a good

education is a must, to come ahead in life.

Pablo Gomez jr. is a well manner, impressionable, eager to

help, a kid that is a bit confused about who he really is, but a peaceful individual, without hate. I am still in bewilderment about the whole event.

I am not coming out on his defense, if he is guilty, he must

pay.

I am not endorsing any of his believes.

The Constitution still allow us to voice what we believe to

be right, but bashing out an individual without knowing the facts, and blaming

his race, or directing opinion on a negative manner toward racial conflict, is

wrong, and should not be tolerated on a “free” society.

We are all humans and our gene sprouted from the African

continent, it has been proven.

And all individuals, no matter how strong minded, could be susceptible

to change with manipulative conditioning and environment, in my opinion.

As a Hispanic citizen I strongly believe, with all its

faults, in our form of Government, The Constitution, and legal system.

What I am about to tell you, I have not been authorize to say.

Their lawyer have instructed them, not to talk to anyone, and they want so much to say something, to let people know how sorry they are for what have happened. But I must say what I know, because there is more than just the loss of life.

I am not sure about dates and times, and nothing was known about the crime until

many hours later.


Unaware of what has transpired after the event, Pablo’s mother received a call, from Pablo’s friends, that her son was naked running on the streets incoherent, disturbed and agitated. Upon the family arrival it took some time to convinced Pablo to enter the vehicle, and was taken home, to North Hollywood.

Pablo would not talk, will recoiled if somebody wanted to touch him suddenly, will not stop looking back and forth, with a terrified look on his eyes, and somehow agitated.

At home Pablo wanted to walk, so escorted by family he was

taken for a walk. Pablo will not speak, he appeared fearful and catatonic, and

was taken back home when he became agitated.

He will still not answer questions or would mumble and talk incoherent.

To his mother it was apparent that something was wrong with

her son, that he must be taken to the hospital.

Pablo will not cooperate, so with lies, and been told that a

ride will do him good, he agreed to get inside the car.

When they got close to the Hospital he became suspicious, agitated and

had to be held by his brother. His mother kept telling him, that they were there

for her, because her chest was hurting, that she will be back.

At the front desk she told the nurse, that something was

wrong with her son, that a wheelchair and two men will be needed, because he

would become agitated.

Pablo was admitted, and as more people conglomerated on the

area, fearful he asked his mother, if the people were there to rape him.

His mother tried to calm him down, telling him, that they

were there to help. He became more agitated.

Bashing and screaming he would claim that they were there to

rape him. At this point he became so violent, that he had to be restrain with a strait

jacket, and admitted to the psychiatric ward. Then Burbank police took

custody, for he was wanted. So I was told.

I have no reason to doubt, that something else happen, that

made a five feet six inches, about a 100 pounds individual, whether he is weak minded or impressionable commit cold blooded murder.

I am not making excuse or downplaying the crime committed,

but is terrible when an example of what is occurring in our society comes so

close to home.

It is not because he had a poor upbringing or whatever, it can happen to anyone, anywhere. As many other crimes of strange circumstances, it is our obligation to demand an explanation of why peaceful individuals, disturbed or not, are becoming criminals, from one day to another without apparent reason.

Many lives are now ruin, and regretfully one beautiful life is lost.

I hope it will not be in vain and become another statistic.

I’m noticing that the media is becoming heartless, and will sway to whatever will increase their ratings.

Example, when a friend of Pablo calls claiming that he will rather go by

“they” instead of “he”. That would guarantee high ratings and traffic.

I challenge the media to really find out how a puny individual was capable of such violent crime. Was he induced by environment, chemicals, individuals, organizations?.

What is making our young ones become such cold blooded killers?.

Hate is a waste of time, it poisons the soul.

One thing I know for certain, Pablo must have made a good impression upon the Governor of California, for the Governor to have him under his wing.


God Bless America

FM


that was a well written thoughtful post.I first found out about this case when a friend of mine was arrested on false charges and now faces deportation.I was searching on his name and found that he had caught the attention anti-immigrant bloggers. They were saying really hate filled things and were posting a lot of inaccurate information. These same bloggers were doing the same with Pablo Lopez Jr. So that caught my attention and made me wonder Just what kind of person was Pablo Gomez Jr? Could this have been a psychotic break, or was this incident part of a larger pattern of behavior?I have heard people identify Pablo as gay, and I have heard others say Pablo only identified as queer for political reasons , with one commentator claiming that Pablo only dated women and had a history of treating these women very poorly. Did he really insist on being called?


What is the truth


“We will transform every structure that is poisoned by a toxic whiteness…”


I can’t think of anything racist about working to promote environmental education.


My condolences to the family.


This wack job will plead all kinds of loony arguments, and manage to get life i prison when he really needs to be taken out back and shot.


If this little guy was so upset, why didn’t he just go have a good cry in his safe space. Time has come to ban knives.


Insanity plead in 3…2…1…


Well Pablo, it seems you are just about anti-everything life has to offer. Lets see how you like prison for the rest of your life. You should be given nothing less. Perhaps from your prison cell you can expound about how murderers matter, and that the police should not be armed…like YOU were when you murdered Emilie. Perhaps you can protest the prison environment despite the fact that it will be perfect for a low-life like yourself.

I hope YOU (they) enjoy the rest of your life…


“They” be “toxic” and “threatened” and then TOOK a REAL life. This is going to stop. God bless Emilie.


Prayers to her family.


What a sad story and a wonderful young productive life wasted for a bag of dirt!


Good thing we kept the death penalty in California although he will probably just rot in jail if he is not released in 5 years.


You didn’t read the story?, it’s not “he will probably just rot”, it’s “they will probably just rot, and not “he is not released”, it’s “they is not released”, okay?, got it “straight” now?