Berkeley shelter murder suspect made racist threats, witness says

Marcel Dupree Jones, 37, was fatally shot in 2024 at the Ursula Sherman Village shelter, where he lived with the man accused of killing him. That man, Mark Christopher Dowling, 63, has been held to answer on a murder charge in the killing. Credit: GoFundMe

The man accused of the racially motivated murder of his roommate in a Berkeley shelter got into tense arguments with other Black shelter residents and threatened to shoot them before the 2024 killing, according to another roommate who witnessed it.

Mark Christopher Dowling, 63, was held to answer on a charge of murdering 37-year-old Marcel Dupree Jones, as well as a special allegation that the murder was a hate crime, following a preliminary hearing Thursday. Testimony from Dowling and Jones’ fellow shelter residents offered new insight into what had happened between the two men in the days leading up to the Aug. 25, 2024, killing. Dowling has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Antoine Rufus, who witnessed the shooting, remembered Jones as a “funny, bright, kind of optimistic dude.”

Rufus had shared a dorm with Dowling, Jones and others at Ursula Sherman Village, also known as Harrison House, at 711 Harrison St. Jones and Rufus had some disagreements over politics, but “I had a lot of respect for him because he was going to school so that he could take care of his children,” Rufus said. “He really wanted to get his life back on track.” At the time he was killed Jones was a week away from graduating from a pre-apprenticeship program through an Oakland-based nonprofit, hoping to find work in construction.

Rufus testified about several incidents where Dowling, who is white, threatened Black shelter residents.

In one, Rufus testified, a Black resident threatened to slap Dowling after he said he had hired a “Black whore.” According to Rufus, Dowling responded, “If you try to slap me or you do slap me, I will put a bullet in your ass.”

Another confrontation was between Dowling and Rufus himself. Dowling had pushed a bed towards Rufus while sweeping up food debris. Rufus, who is Black, testified that he had told Dowling, “N—a don’t do that.” Dowling, he said, responded with “I’m not your n—r.”

“I got kind of heated and I proceeded to chase [Dowling] around,” Rufus testified Thursday, and Dowling threatened “to shoot me if I were to lay hands on him.”

An argument over Tupac, then a fight, then a homicide

The day of the killing, Jones and Dowling had gotten into a physical fight, and Jones discussed it with Rufus in a computer room near the dorm room where they all slept.

Rufus said he was told Jones had put on some Tupac, which Dowling did not like. Dowling said “something racially charged” to Jones, who then “beat him up pretty bad,” Rufus testified.

Having heard Dowling already threaten to shoot several people, Rufus warned Jones “that it was possible that he’d shoot him,” but Jones brushed it off, Rufus testified. Jones “told me that he’s from the streets and he’s not really worried about it.”

Marcel Dupree Jones was living at the Ursula Sherman Village, also known as Harrison House, when he was killed in 2024.

While they were having this conversation, Rufus said he could see Dowling leave the shelter briefly, then come back inside about two minutes later, heading for the dorm where they all slept.

Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Dowling appear to retrieve something from a car at 5:22 p.m. the day of the killing. Dowling had gone outside to get a gun from his car, according to a civil complaint from some of Jones’s relatives.

When Jones and Rufus went back to their dorm, they found Jones’ belongings “strewn all over the place,” Rufus testified. Suspecting Dowling had made the mess, Jones asked Dowling “whether or not he wanted to go for round two,” Rufus said.

Dowling, who was on his bunk, then reached to his side, whispered something to Jones that Rufus could not hear, pulled a gun and shot Jones, firing three times, Rufus testified. Rufus bolted, but said he heard another volley of gunshots as he fled, and then a third after that. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.

Maurice Boyce, who was also living at Ursula Sherman Village at the time, said when he heard the gunshots, he thought they were firecrackers. Boyce testified that he was on his bunk in another dorm room nearby, engrossed with his phone, when Dowling suddenly appeared, clambered over Boyce’s body and climbed out an open window next to Boyce’s bed.

Dowling’s foot caught on something as he was going out the window, so Boyce helped him get his foot loose.

“I still didn’t realize what the hell was going on,” Boyce said Thursday.

Berkeley police found Dowling in his car the morning after the shooting, they said in 2024. When they searched the car, police said, they found four guns, at least one of which was “consistent with” the casings found in the dorm, as well as a cache of ammunition. According to a police statement from Dowling’s arrest, when officers interviewed him, he “acknowledged the shooting and said, ‘I should have shot the ceiling or scared him or something.’”

At Thursday’s hearing, Dowling wore a green-and-white striped jail jumpsuit over a bright-orange T-shirt, white sneakers and glasses. He had short white hair and a beard. Throughout the hearing he would frequently lean towards his attorney, Stephen DeFilippis.

Jones’s father and stepmother attended the hearing with a victims’ advocate. They declined to comment.

Judge Jason Chin determined there was probable cause to believe that Dowling had murdered Jones, and that the murder was a hate crime, and ordered Dowling to return to court June 11. DeFilippis indicated he would ask the judiciary to allow bail for Dowling, who has been in custody without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin since his arrest.

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