Victim remembered fondly as suspect’s arraignment delayed

‘My heart always felt warm when I saw her’

SAN JOSl >> An arraignment was delayed again for the man charged with stabbing five people, killing two, at the downtown San Jose homeless shelter where he stayed and volunteered, as the Grace Baptist Church community fondly remembered one of the victims and continued working to resume services for unhoused people.

Fernando Jesus Lopez, 32, initially refused to be escorted to a San Jose courtroom Thursday, and his arraignment was held over to Monday. Last week, his original arraignment hearing was postponed because of a COVID-19 exposure concern at the Main Jail, according to authorities. He remains in custody without bail.

Lopez has been charged with two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the Nov. 22 outburst of violence, which caught many at the Grace Baptist shelter by surprise and left church staffers and volunteers reeling just days before Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner- Coroner’s Office identified one of the two people who died in the attack as 55-year- old Kimberly Susan Sial. John Paulson, 45, the first person killed, was identified last week.

Sial arrived at Grace Baptist Church as a shelter guest in the middle of the year, and almost as soon as she got there, she started pitching in to help the staff however she could, said shelter manager Anthony Mastrocola. That included helping make and serve dinner, passing out coffee in the morning and running the shelter’s shower arrangements.

“My heart always felt warm when I saw her when I got into the building,” Mastrocola said. “One, I’m thinking, ‘OK, I know everything’s under control.’

And two, she’s just a good person.”

Sial was a proud trans woman, according to those who knew her. She had a military background, and experience working in restaurant kitchens.

They also said she loved bright colors and usually could be seen in hot pink shoes and colorful leggings, sipping a soda — her favorites were Coke and Dr. Pepper. And her quiet temperament belied her ability to draw a laugh out of people around her.

“She had a twinkle in her eye. This little smile,” said Shaunn Cartwright, who uses the church as a base for her homeless outreach efforts. “It was kind of like, ‘ What are you up to?’ ”

On the night of the stabbing, Cartwright was at the church with other volunteers, making foam tombstones for their annual memorial to unhoused people who died in the county over the past year. The group unwittingly stayed too late, with Sial waiting for it to clear its supplies out of the Grace Baptist gym so she could lay out the sleeping mats for the night.

But Sial was too nice to say anything, Cartwright said. When Cartwright finally left for the night, Sial was setting up the mats with Lopez, the man now accused of killing her.

According to San Jose police investigators, Lopez attacked Paulson first with a chef’s knife, inflicting a fatal injury that resulted in

Paulson dying at the scene. Then Lopez stabbed a man staying at the shelter; that victim told police that as he ran to safety, he saw Lopez stab Sial.

As another shelter guest and volunteer came to Sial’s aid, Lopez stabbed him in the back, he told police. The fifth victim, who survived, reported that Lopez ambushed him in the bathroom and slashed him with the knife. A blood-smeared Lopez was found and arrested about 12 minutes later by a San Jose police officer canvassing the area.

Mastrocola said he was down the street when the attack began but rushed back to the shelter after a staff member called him. When he arrived, guests were running in panic, and he immediately saw one of his staff members covered in blood. Inside, he saw a body on the floor of the kitchen, which according to police would have been Paulson.

Mastrocola still is coming to grips with the idea that Lopez could commit such acts.

“He had us all thinking, this dude is solid,” Mastrocola said. “He’s helpful. He’s respectful. He’s thoughtful.”

But Mastrocola had noticed Lopez becoming increasingly paranoid. And people who knew him suspected he had gone back to using drugs, particularly meth.

His arrest and criminal history — which included drug arrests and convictions for assault and domestic violence — inflamed a political divide over the county’s sanctuary policy.

Lopez had been deported three times before the church attacks and was released from jail after another domestic violence arrest in June. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, as well as San Jose’s mayor and police chief, have argued that his release, coupled with the county’s policy of defying ICE notification and detainer requests, were missed opportunities to prevent Lopez from committing the attack.

Immigration rights advocates, civil rights groups and Grace Baptist’s senior pastor have said those arguments exploit Lopez as a scapegoat for sanctuary policies that are vital to building and preserving trust in government by immigrant communities.

At a Tuesday vigil to honor and support the victims, church and shelter staff vowed to reopen in the coming days, saying that there remains a critical need for shelter and resources for the unhoused population they serve and who were at the center of the tragedy.

The program has been closed since the attack, and displaced shelter guests have been put up in a San Jose hotel in rooms first funded by volunteers, and then paid for by Grace Solutions, the nonprofit that supports the shelter.

Grace Solutions also is accepting donations through PayPal to help repair and clean the facility, and hire additional staff, to help the shelter resume its mission.