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Arts & Culture

Zumbi’s Loved Ones Still Awaiting Accountability for Hospital Killing

Nastia Voynovskaya
As family members pursue a civil lawsuit, supporters gathered to mourn the Bay Area hip-hop icon.
On Aug. 13, 2024, friends and family gathered at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, where security guards killed Stephen Gaines, better known as Zumbi, in 2021.  (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

Three years after his death on Aug. 13, 2021, the family of beloved hip-hop artist Baba Zumbi of Zion I, whose real name was Stephen Gaines, is still fighting for accountability and answers.

Zumbi, 48, was killed in an altercation with security guards while he was a patient at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. According to court filings and a coroner’s report, Zumbi was killed when three male security guards and hospital staff members piled on top of him, with one employee placing both legs on Zumbi’s neck and upper torso.

The Berkeley Police Department investigated the case as homicide, but no criminal charges have been filed. Zumbi’s mother Carolyn Gaines, his three under-age sons, and their mother Tiffany Brown sued the hospital and its security company, Allied Universal, for wrongful death, medical malpractice, violation of civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and several other allegations in 2022. A jury is scheduled to hear the case in June 2025.

On Tuesday, about 50 family members, friends and supporters gathered outside of Alta Bates Hospital, where Zumbi was killed.

“I continue to ask the public to keep Steve’s memory alive. Remember what he represented, what he did, and keep being patient,” said Zumbi’s mother Carolyn at the vigil, adding that she has faith that there will be accountability for those responsible for her son’s death. “I can assure everyone that the case is still alive and being worked on actively.”

Two women hug. One wears a T-shirt with Zumbi's portrait while the other holds a candle with his picture on it.
Zumbi’s mother Carolyn Gaines and his partner Millaray Rodriguez Avila at a vigil on Aug. 13, 2024. (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

Millaray Rodriguez Avila, Zumbi’s partner of four years, was there Tuesday night with her teenage son. Just before his death, Zumbi was making plans to move into a new house with her, all of their children and his mother. Three years later, the family is still contending with the sudden, violent loss of someone they remember as a devoted, active father and loving son and partner.

“Steve was a guy that did everything for his community, for his people, for his mother, for his brother, for his three kids, for every single friend,” she said. “He dedicated himself to everybody. I think he would be here for everybody if one of us was murdered.”

Zumbi was known as a gentle spirit, nature lover and qigong practitioner. Friends spoke at the vigil about how he encouraged them to be their best, creatively, spiritually and even physically with his healthy lifestyle. Fans recalled how he inspired them with his lyrics about healing and unity.

A man speaks into the microphone at a small gathering on the sidewalk.
Rapper Deuce Eclipse frequently collaborated with Zumbi. The two had been close since high school. (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

“We have to pray for the family that surrounded Steve because they’re in pain, too. We’re all in pain,” said rapper Deuce Eclipse, who had been close with Zumbi since their days at De La Salle High School in Concord. Other members of the hip-hop community, including Equipto, Tajai Massey of Hieroglyphics and Sellassie also paid their respects. A trio of teenage siblings called Osada 3, who were close family friends, played acoustic covers of Zion I songs like “Bird’s Eye View” and “The Bay.”

Members of the activist group Berkeley Copwatch helped organize the vigil. “It’s an issue about mental health, race and institutionalism,” said Copwatch member Nikki Powell about Zumbi’s death.

An altar bears a large portrait of Zumbi, the name of his group Zion I, flowers and candles.
Friends and fans lit candles and left items on an altar outside of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley on Aug. 13, 2024. (Nastia Voynovskaya/KQED)

Zumbi, who was COVID-positive at the time of his death, was at Alta Bates under a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold, reportedly because he had expressed suicidal ideation in a 911 call. While he was at the hospital, he left his room and an altercation ensued.

The court complaint filed by Zumbi’s family’s lawyers, Elizabeth Grossman and Lyn Agre, argues that hospital staff and security guards used excessive force, violated legal standards that dictate how to properly restrain a psychiatric patient and did not render medical aid as he was dying. The lawsuit also alleges that a hospital administrator knowingly lied by telling Zumbi’s mother that he had died of a heart attack, and that she later learned of his real cause of death from Berkeley Police homicide detectives.

Attorneys from Wilson Esler and Hassard Bonnington, the law firms representing Allied Universal and Alta Bates respectively, did not return KQED’s request for comment as of publication time. A representative for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office also did not return multiple requests for comment.

Family members will continue to update the public on the @justice_for_zumbi Instagram account.

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