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. His family has since sued the city of Berkeley, the shelter’s parent organization and the roommate. Credit: GoFundMe

The family of Marcel Dupree Jones, an unhoused Black man shot and killed in what authorities have described as a hate crime, has sued the man charged with his murder, along with the nonprofit that runs the Northwest Berkeley homeless shelter where Jones was killed and the city of Berkeley, which funds the nonprofit.

Two of Jones’ preschool-aged children filed a civil complaint through a guardian Nov. 18, accusing the city, shelter and roommate of negligence, civil rights violations and other claims.

Jones, 37, was a week away from graduating a pre-apprenticeship program and headed for a construction career when he was fatally shot on Aug. 25, 2024, at Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency’s (BOSS) Ursula Sherman Village shelter at Harrison and Fourth streets. Berkeley police arrested his then-roommate, 63-year-old Mark Christopher Dowling, the next day.

Dowling, who is white, “was an open and avowed racist who sought out Black individuals to fight,” Jones’ family’s attorneys wrote. Dowling frequently used racist epithets and threatened to shoot his Black neighbors, the attorneys said, and he “had gotten into multiple fights during his time at Ursula Sherman Village,” according to the family’s complaint.

On the evening he was killed, Jones played a Tupac song at the shelter, which Dowling “did not like,” and after a physical fight with Jones, Dowling left the shelter to get a gun from his car, having made up his mind to “make good on his numerous earlier threats of shooting Black individuals,” according to the family’s complaint. He came back into the shelter armed and shot Jones three times in the chest, back and abdomen, according to the family’s complaint.

Dowling fled through a shelter window, driving off in his car, witnesses told police. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.

The next morning Berkeley police found Dowling parked in his car and they said he later acknowledged having shot Jones.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Dowling with murder, along with a special allegation that the killing was a hate crime in August 2024. Dowling has pleaded not guilty and denied having committed a hate crime.

Jones’s family’s lawyers wrote that BOSS had failed in keeping the shelter secure “despite knowledge of prior shootings and fights” there and for letting Dowling, “a known and violent racist,” continue to stay there.

Jones “adored his family” and “enjoyed showering his two preschoolers with love,” according to the civil complaint. His family has asked for compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and other penalties.

None of the defendants in the civil case has filed a formal response to the civil allegations, according to court records. A spokesperson for BOSS said the organization would not comment on pending litigation. Spokespeople and attorneys for Berkeley did not immediately respond to inquiries. It is unclear if Dowling will have a different attorney for the civil case; his attorney in his criminal case did not immediately respond to Berkeleyside.

BOSS, begun in 1971, runs 14 sites and dozens more programs in Alameda County. This June it opened up 39 units of supportive housing in Central Berkeley for formerly unhoused people. It is headquartered in downtown Berkeley.

BOSS opened Harrison House, later renamed Ursula Sherman Village, half a century ago as California’s first shelter for homeless, disabled residents. As of 2023 it had beds for 50 single residents and 18 families. The facility offers behavioral health services, education and assistance finding employment and housing. Eligible applicants are allowed to stay there for up to six months, and may sometimes qualify for extensions. Alameda County places people there through its Coordinated Entry System.

The shelter was the site of another, non-fatal shooting in January 2024. Police arrested a 29-year-old man in connection with that shooting; he later pleaded no contest to one count of gun possession by a convicted felon.

Berkeley administers some of BOSS’s funding, from federal grants and state and city coffers.

In his criminal case, Dowling is scheduled to return to court in Oakland for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 8. He has been held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin since his arrest.

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