SANTA CRUZ — It has been five years since Sara Coon awoke to news that her friend had been murdered in an apparently senseless spat.
Even after hearing rumors of the shooting, Coon avoided leaving her room for as long as she could on Aug. 23, 2015, not wanting confirmation that 24-year-old Joey Shuemaker had, in fact, been shot dead shortly after 8 a.m. on the San Lorenzo River levee. The two had spoken just the night before, Shuemaker eerily predicting to Coon that, “You never know, I might die tomorrow.”
Around 6 p.m., Coon finally grabbed her bicycle and headed out from the Page Smith Community House. Hours after, yellow crime scene tape was still strung across the area not far from the Riverwalk Plaza. She collapsed nearby, giving in to the tears.
For the past five years, Coon has sought to keep the memory of her friend alive through a variety of memorials, all centered around a levee light pole. She has planted flower beds with mulching and often washable chalk and paints messages, “RIP Joey.” Initially, Coon said she sought to place a formal memorial at the site for Shuemaker, reaching out to both Santa Cruz county and city Parks and Recreation officials for options. She said she was offered a chance to spend thousands to purchase a memorial bench or hundreds to buy a plaque — both of which would be placed at parks “none of us heard of (or) where Joey’s never been.”
“I been trying to get a memorial for him done because he loved it here in Santa Cruz and he was taken before his time in an act of violence,” Coon wrote in an email to the Sentinel. “Everyone else seems to have permanent memorials and benches, why can’t he?”
Coon said her various unsanctioned memorials to Shuemaker have been systematically ripped up, painted over and even had cement poured on top of them, Coon said. Over the years, Coon said she has discovered that opposition to her efforts is not coming from city clean-up crews; she believes it is one private citizen’s work.
“It’s like he goes out of his way to destroy everything I’ve done,” Coon said. “And I am the only one who pays for the materials for the memorial and being single and on disability, it gets costly. It would be one thing if I made it look gross or dirty but I clean up around Joey’s area and that part of the levee is respected by the homeless and they don’t trash it and they help keep it clean for Joey.”
Walking the walk
Coon has no illusions about Shuemaker, saying he was known for being overly concerned about his popularity and looks and could be abrasive, “the guy who would steal your stolen stuff and give it back to you type person.”
“If Joey didn’t like you, he would let you know,” Coon said. “He was the one that would walk the walk (and) talk the talk, which, in the end, got him killed.”
Still, Coon said, Shuemaker would always stick up for the underdog — even if that meant getting into a fight to prove his point. Prior to his death, Shuemaker had been homeless. According to Coon, he had arrived in Santa Cruz about a year earlier, looking for a fresh start. The two had first met in Santa Barbara County years before.
“I have spent over $3,000 in the last five years to keep Joey’s memory alive and make a statement that homeless people are people too and that we can’t just forget about them, especially since he was murdered,” Coon said. “His death wasn’t a gang turf fight or over drugs, it had nothing to do with any of that, it was basically over a fight over a girl.”
Shuemaker’s killers, Nino Martin Ruiz and girlfriend Jenessa Kic, both of Santa Cruz, were arrested and charged with murder the same day Shuemaker died. Shortly after, the City of Santa Cruz enacted a policy prohibiting loitering in unmarked areas along the river, including those spaces often occupied by homeless individuals. Jurors then went on to convict both defendants in July 2019 and the two were each given life sentences in prison.
“It was hard for all of us at that time,” said Coon, who was formerly homeless. “Even though Joey wasn’t liked by everyone, he was still part of the homeless community and back then we were more like a big family. And to have him killed by another homeless over some stupid drama made it worse.”
Shuemaker’s brother, William Shuemaker, said the two had broken off contact three years prior to Joey’s death, but had heard that he was in Santa Cruz “trying to be his own man and to get on his feet” at the time of his death.
“He’s upstanding. He was very caring,” William Shuemaker said. “He cared about everyone else and put everyone before him. It’s hard to see him go.”