San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, June 24, 2007

When the sirens rang out, Karen Yifru had a bad feeling.

“I never go to sleep until all my babies are home,” she said. “I was waiting by the window, waiting for him to walk home.”

Yifru’s 17-year-old son, Biniam, never came home Friday night. The recent graduate of James Logan High in Union City had gone just a few blocks away to a graduation party for a fellow student at a house owned by an assistant principal at the high school.

The party went bad, police said. Gang members arrived uninvited, prompting a bloody melee that injured five people. Two were shot, including Biniam, whom officers found lying on a front walkway with a wound to the head. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Investigators, who are still interviewing dozens of witnesses, still don’t know why he was shot, Union City police Lt. Jim Bizieff said today. “I don’t think the victim had anything to do with (the fight),” he said.

At about noon today, investigators arrested the suspected shooter, Bizieff said. The unidentified 17-year-old boy, found at a friend’s house in Hayward, was booked into juvenile hall on suspicion of a single count of murder.

Bizieff said he did not know if the owners of the Fellow Street house where the party was held, Beth and David Davies, could face legal consequences. He said police received no complaints about the party until the fight, and neighbors said Davies’ 18-year-old son told them in advance of his plans.

Partygoers said alcohol was consumed.

Beth Davies was recently named principal of Hillview Crest Elementary in Union City after spending this past year as a house principal at James Logan. Two women at Davies’ home declined to comment today.

News of the alleged shooter’s arrest was of little consolation to Biniam’s loved ones, who said he had recently registered for Ohlone College in Fremont, secured a job as a law clerk, and got a haircut for the first time in two years.

Family members said Biniam endured the death five months ago of his 24-year-old brother, Travis Yifru, from diabetes. Two years ago, Biniam’s father had left and returned to his native Ethiopia.

His other sister, Candance Yifru, 14, said Biniam had taken her and another friend to the party, where he danced. The house was packed with about 100 people and there was no adult supervision, Candace said. She said, though, that the guests — most from James Logan — had no problems prior to the fight.

The fight broke out around midnight, said Candace, who was bruised and lost a contact lens.

Candace’s friend, 17-year-old Courtney Wilkerson, said Biniam ushered her to safety when the fight started. But then she lost contact with him.

Back home, Candace received a text message that Biniam had been shot. Karen Yifru then drove four blocks to the shooting scene, where an officer told her that her son was dead.

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