Daily Republic: Monday, August 15, 2022 by mcnaughtonmedia

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DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

Solano sees 3rd deadly shooting in as many days Daily Republic Staff

DRNEWS@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

Renée C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee/TNS photos

Mark Rippee, 59, who is blind, rests on the ground holding a cigarette in Vacaville, July 27. He said he

needs someone to give him a ride to look for apartments and a job.

Vacaville man is blind, homeless, schizophrenic

VALLEJO — One person was shot and killed early Sunday in Vallejo – the third deadly shooting in Solano County in as many days. Police responded shortly after 2:05 a.m. to reports of a shooting on the 2000 block of Solano Avenue in Vallejo. Officers who arrived there found one person who had been shot at least once, according to a press release. The victim, described only as a male, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead. Information about the victim, to include his age and city of residence, was not released. His name was withheld pending

family notification. The shooting remains under investigation. This is the third fatal shooting in Solano County since Friday and the second in Vallejo. A shooting early Friday left one person dead in Vallejo, police report. The shooting was reported shortly before 4:30 a.m. on the 1300 block of Arkansas Street. Officers who arrived there found one person who had been shot at least once. The victim was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead, police report. The shooting remains under investigation. The name, gender, See Deadly, Page A7

Why can’t California help him? Melinda Henneberger THE SACRAMENTO BEE

‘I

think that’s him,” Linda Privatte says as we creep down Monte Vista Avenue, looking in all the usual spots for her younger brother, James Mark Rippee, who has been living on the streets right around the Solano County Building here for 15 years now. It is Mark, kneeling beside the 7-Eleven, feeling around on the sidewalk for the debit card he keeps losing. One of the day laborers waiting in the parking lot next door thinks that we must be from the county and comes over to offer his own assessment: “Are you doing an evaluation? He decided to be this way. He decided.” A lot of us tell ourselves that as we walk on by, annoyed and alarmed, not without reason, that the number of people yelling f-bombs into traffic as they push

their carts around and around just keeps growing. But no, Mark did not decide to lose his sight, along with part of his frontal lobe, in a 1987 motorcycle accident on his way back from a Father’s Day barbecue when he was 24. He did not decide to start hearing voices in the years that followed. He never chose to sleep in bushes instead of a bed after those voices convinced him to tear apart his garage apartment at Linda’s home; it’s just that the walls were talking to him, and he wanted to shut them up. He never set out to burn down two different trailers in her backyard, either, though he did start those fires. And his longstanding “decision” to refuse all psychiatric treatment has been a symptom of his schizophrenia, too. As a result of that disconnect, we aren’t failing only him, but thousands of unhoused individuals across California. As is too

Linda Privatte, 65, caresses her brother Mark Rippee’s hand as she gently tries to wake him up on a sidewalk in Vacaville, Aug. 1. “Is it OK for me to clean your cart out for you so I can see what you need?” she asked.

often the case, his survival has depended on the stubborn heroism of his family, in particular his 65-year-old twin sisters. But his predicament shows that even with the strongest possible advocates, in a state willing to spend billions on this challenge, you can still be left to die on the streets. And most of all, what his story illustrates is why the “simple” solutions touted by politicians over the decades have so far solved nothing at all. Before Mark’s accident, he worked in construction and loved playing the guitar. More than anything else, he looked forward to getting married and raising a family in his Northern California hometown, where the population is just under 100,000 and, as of a year ago, had just under 100 homeless people. For the first 20 years after the night a car swerved into his lane on an S-curve, forcing him off a country road into an abandoned grain harvester, his family was able to care for him. Even with in-home help, this was an all-consuming effort for seven people, Linda says. “It took Cathy” – that’s Catherine Rippee-Hanson, Linda’s twin – “me, Mom, my father when he was alive, a full-time county caregiver living with him,” plus Linda’s husband and later, Catherine’s son. After the fires that Mark admitted were no accident, Linda still let him stay with her, because how could she turn out her own brother, the baby of the four siblings? “But different things kept happening, and I could tell that it was scaring my children and making them anxious.” Then he got his own place, and then See Blind, Page A7

Susan Hiland/Daily Republic

The 59th Annual Benicia Peddlers Fair draws thousands of visitors to downtown Benicia, Saturday. More than 300 vendors brought their wares for shoppers.

Benicia Peddlers Fair draws many eager shoppers Susan Hiland

SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

BENICIA — The annual Benicia Peddlers Fair has been a fundraising fixture for the community for 59 years. Karen Bascomb, along with her husband Dennis, came to the fair for the first time Saturday. They recently moved to Antioch and thought it would be a nice day for the whole family to gather. They waited in the shade by the church for everyone to arrive. “It is close to us,” Karen Bascomb said. “My daughter is hoping to find things for her

WEATHER 99 | 64 Hot. Five-day forecast on B8.

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apartment in Chico.” The event is a fundraiser for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. It helps to maintain the historic church along with other buildings on the property, which includes a rectory built in the 1700s. The first event in 1963 was called the Benicia Flea Market, a reference to the Paris Flea Market, and had 115 vendors from various parts of California and Nevada. About 4,000 visitors descended on the town for one day. The Rev. Charles See Fair, Page A7

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