Friends Mourn Homeless Man Murdered on Christmas Eve
Bill McNeal’s attacker slashed his face while he slept in a doorway at 21st and K streets, NW. He awoke to a kick, in a pool of his own blood, and desperately felt for his cell phone. Luckily, it had not been stolen. He called 911.
Raw scars still run across McNeal’s face. But he lived to tell the tale of his brush with death in the early morning hours of Dec. 7.
Less than three weeks later, before dawn on Christmas Eve, another homeless man sleeping a few blocks away was not so lucky.
Yoshio Nakada, a slight, fragile Japanese man beloved for his singing voice and sweet nature, was found lying dead of head injuries on Virginia Avenue near the Watergate complex.
It was at least the third attack on a homeless man sleeping alone in the Foggy Bottom area in the past three months, police say. They are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed Nakada. And they wonder if a single person is preying on the homeless.
“We’re looking at two other incidents to see if the same person is committing these assaults,” said D.C. Police Detective Anthony Paci. But so far, police say they have found “nothing concrete” to link the crimes. They are also investigating reports of two additional attacks on homeless men in the same area earlier last year.
Salvation Army outreach worker Paula Dyan said she has worked with the victims of all five of the assaults.
“It seems like each attack has been more vicious than the last,” she said. “You wish there was some way they could catch this person. I feel it is the same person.”
In the meantime, she is warning the homeless people she works with on the streets not to sleep alone. And she is grieving for her friend Nakada.
“Of all the people, Nakada was the sweetest,” she said. “He was childlike.”
She joined others who reflected upon Nakada’s death with shock and sadness.
“With Yoshio, it was like destroying a piece of art,” said Gunther Stern, executive director of the Georgetown Ministry Center, which offers counseling and other services at offices located at Grace Episcopal Church on Wisconsin Avenue.
“I really think he was a gift to humanity,” Stern said. While Nakada clearly suffered from mental illness, he formed deep connections with many at the center. He was a particular favorite of Stern’s daughter, who called him “the man who sang to the birds.”
Nakada had slept at an emergency shelter at Grace Church the week before he died. He felt at home at Grace Church and attended services there. But when the shelter, which is hosted by different churches on a rotating schedule, moved on to another location, Nakada refused to go, Stern said.
“He didn’t follow,” Stern said. “We couldn’t find him.”
Nakada did not talk about his past in Japan or how he came to America or how he became homeless, said Adam Rocap, director of social services at Miriam’s Kitchen, a meal and outreach program Nakada often visited, located around the corner from the place he died.
“He was always a bit of a mystery,” said Rocap. Yet the small man with his songs and smiles was a life-affirming presence there.
“It was really magical what he brought out of people,” said Rocap. “He really created a community wherever he went.”
Miriam’s Kitchen deputy director Catherine Crum called the death of Nakada “an urgent call to action for our community to provide housing, safe places of refuge, accessible shelters and necessary supports to all who are without homes.”
The homeless are vulnerable to violence, according to a recent survey of 2,859 homeless people by the District of Columbia Department of Human Services. More than 34% said that they had been the victim of a violent crime since becoming homeless.
And while many of the crimes are believed to go unreported, serious attacks against the homeless are believed to be on the rise nationwide, according to Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, which has compiled statistics nationwide on such crimes since 1999.
Nationally, according to NCH findings, fatal attacks increased from 20 in 2006 to 28 in 2007.
Of the people accused and convicted of crimes against the homeless in 2007, 86% were 25 and under, with many saying they committed the crimes for the “thrill” or the “fun” of it, the report said.
NCH has backed legislation that would add the homeless to the classes of people protected under District and federal hate crime laws.
“It would send a symbolic and practical message that attacks against the homeless won’t be tolerated,” Stoops said.
Who took Nakada’s life, or why – whether it was a random crime, a bashing, or something else – remains a mystery.
But his death starkly illustrates the challenges of life on the street. Homeless people report that petty theft, street hassles, and the possibility of something worse are constant concerns in lives lacking the privacy and security of a home.
Police and homeless advocates, working with the Japanese Embassy, have been able to locate Nakada’s sister in Japan, said the Rev. John Graham of Grace Episcopal Church, who is helping to plan a memorial service for Nakada.
“We hope to be in touch with Yoshio’s sister, and ask her to send a remembrance of Yoshio’s life in Japan for reading at the service,” Graham said.
The service is scheduled for Jan. 10, 1 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, which is located at 1041 Wisconsin Ave.
