Transporter

A Berkeley High grad and local junior college student wound up in a late-night frat fight and killed a UC engineering student.

It's tragic for everyone -- obviously the victim, but also the killer. He was just a kid like me, only better, because at only 20 he was already going to college. He had plans and a social life. Unfortunately he also had a knife.

Judgment will follow the natural question: Why did he have a knife?

I spent a lot of time out on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland after dark. To me it makes perfect sense that he had a knife. His drunken judgment to pull it is what must weight against him. Very possibly he found himself surrounded by a bunch of large and arrogant frat boys and reacted in fear and self-defense. Personally, I hope if that is the case, that is how the case is ruled.

Sometimes there is no good news.