Hundreds of workers from Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that provides public safety services on the streets of San Francisco, gathered on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday to honor one of their colleagues who was fatally shot last week.
In the early evening of Sept. 26, 60-year-old Joey Alexander was on shift when he was fatally shot outside San Francisco’s Main Library. Alexander, a street ambassador with Urban Alchemy, was shot after asking someone to refrain from allegedly using drugs out in the open, according to Urban Alchemy.
Urban Alchemy is an organization that contracts with the city to provide outreach services and crime deterrence, especially in areas with homelessness and open-air drug use such as the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Street ambassadors, who were mostly formerly incarcerated before joining the nonprofit, monitor the streets and provide crisis intervention for people struggling with mental illness or substance use disorders.
“Urban Alchemy is embedded in our community,” said David Seward, chief financial officer of UC Law San Francisco. The law school is located on the edge of the Tenderloin and often interacts with Urban Alchemy ambassadors.
“The practitioners, they keep us safe, they keep us grounded,” Seward said. “We mourn the loss of Joey Alexander and pray for the safety of the Urban Alchemy practitioners that keep our community safe.”
Fellow colleagues, as well as Mayor Daniel Lurie and several supervisors, acknowledged Alexander’s service and the pain his death has caused to both his family and the Urban Alchemy team.
“We’re here in the face of an unimaginable tragedy to honor the life of Joey Alexander, a man who gave his heart to our communities through his work as an Urban Alchemy practitioner,” said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood. “A man who was taken too soon by senseless gun violence simply for being brave enough to serve our community.”
A call to action on drug abuse
Alexander’s death has also sparked greater outcry to address open-air drug use.
“We have to intervene,” said Cedric Akbar, a prominent voice in San Francisco’s addiction recovery community. “We have to stop drug use on the street. We have to tear down these permissive policies that allow us to die in public.”
Lurie said that he has ordered more foot patrols in and around the Civic Center area.
“We have to stop drug use on the street. We have to tear down these permissive policies that allow us to die in public.”
Cedric Akbar, addiction recovery advocate
The memorial event was also an opportunity for Lurie and other speakers to express immense gratitude to Urban Alchemy workers.
“I am grateful every single day to all of you for the hard work and collaboration of working in the streets on behalf of communities,” Lurie said. “You are out there every single day helping people and creating safe spaces across San Francisco.”
Edmund Bowen, the 42-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting Alexander, has been charged with murder and assault with a firearm, according to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.