Homeless Santa Rosa shooting victim was weeks from having home

A homeless man who was about two weeks from having a roof over his head was gunned down Thursday in the makeshift bed where he slept, in a camp beneath an overpass along Santa Rosa’s Prince Memorial Greenway.

Benjamin Louis Guleng, 43, was killed by an unknown gunman shortly before 8:45 p.m. Thursday, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said Friday. Police found no weapon at the camp, where many homeless people sleep to seek shelter from the rain. Police still were looking for a suspect, the violent-crimes sergeant said.

Guleng had been working with Catholic Charities to find housing, and staff had just secured an apartment for him, said Jennielynn Holmes, the nonprofit’s director of shelter and housing. The efforts to help Guleng come amid a shift by the Catholic Charities and local governments to prioritize finding housing as quickly as possible for Sonoma County’s most vulnerable homeless.

Staff members first met Guleng downtown about eight months ago and began regularly meeting with him, sometimes several times a week.

“He was a very kind-hearted man who was working extremely hard to change his life,” Holmes said. “He also saw the best in others, and he would bring others to us to help them get engaged in services.”

Guleng had been in the Santa Rosa area for years - perhaps even a decade - according to several people who said they knew him, and who like Guleng were part of the homeless community that congregates downtown and in Railroad Square.

Among a group of people sitting under tents and out of the drizzling rain Friday afternoon at the Redwood Gospel Mission’s outdoor seating area, several nodded heads when asked if they knew Guleng.

A 62-year-old woman, who didn’t want to be identified, said that news of his death spread quickly during the 6:30 a.m. breakfast served at the mission. The woman said Guleng was almost always with his wife and a little dog.

“His wife, I’m not sure what she’ll do now … she shouldn’t be out here by herself,” the woman said.

Ludtke said police had identified no firm motive in the shooting. They found no sign of robbery, he said.

A woman seated with her 18-year-old son and another man under a stone awning at the Railroad Square depot shrugged when asked whether the shooting made her feel unsafe. She said she and her son had been staying at a camp near Guleng “on the quiet end” of Prince Memorial Greenway. They were discussing where to sleep that night because of the proximity of the shooting as well as the rain.

“I’m always nervous about being out here, but you do what you have to do,” she said.

The woman, who also didn’t want her name to be made public because the suspect is at large, said that Guleng said “hello” and “goodbye” to others but not much else.

“They pretty much kept to themselves,” she said of Guleng and his wife.

“I think he said he was a Marine,” her son said.

Efforts to locate Guleng’s wife were unsuccessful Friday.

Ludtke said that police have had contacts with Guleng since about 2010.

Ludtke said that another homeless person found Guleng. He declined to provide further details about that person, who was not considered a suspect.

“There are a lot of unknowns,” he said.

The camp is under the highway near a stairway that leads from the dead-end cul-de-sac of Sonoma Avenue to the Prince Memorial Greenway. Ludtke said Guleng had been staying there and “had property and camping supplies there.”

A hole in a chain-link fence leads into the camp. The camp appeared well lived-in with piles of plastic utensils and instant noodle cups. Bags and suitcases, shoes and clothing were strewn around the camp Friday.

A collection of essays by authors from Francisco Bacon to Joan Didion sat on the pile of sleeping pads and blankets where paramedics tried to resuscitate Guleng.

Anyone with information about the case can call the Police Department’s violent crimes team at ?543-3590. Callers may remain anonymous.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.