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Shareef Allman

The Shareef Allman they know would try to stop violence, not deal it out with an assault rifle in a workplace massacre.

Sunny and kind, his tattooed boxer's biceps as big as his personality, Allman would help people when they had trouble at work, friends said Wednesday. He was the one who stopped gang fights. And he was the one on his cable show "Real 2 Real" interviewing Jesse Jackson about hope and local street walkers about salvation.

As law enforcement launched one of the largest manhunts in South Bay history, ministers and community activists who knew him tried to shake off their tearful disbelief to urge Allman to peacefully surrender.

Absurdly to them, this 47-year-old single father, who wrote a book about overcoming domestic violence, was now a major suspect in an early morning mass murder that began at Lehigh Hanson's Permanente Cement Plant in Cupertino and left three dead and seven wounded.

Those who knew Allman said they all had the same terrible contradiction in their minds: How could Shareef — who wrote Christmas plays for churches — have done something like this?

"He's the one who would go out and solve the problem, not to be the problem,'' said Pastor Jeff Moore II, the head of the Silicon Valley NAACP, who said Allman is a sharp-dressed, peaceful and uplifting man devoted to the South Bay black community. "He was a quiet storm and I've never seen him lift his hand to anyone, ever. This is not the Shareef that we know."

People surmised there was trouble at the quarry in Cupertino, where most of the victims were killed. But few could pinpoint exactly what it was. Over and over people kept saying: He must have snapped.

One old friend, Rose Douglas, said he might have been upset about having his shift changed, which took him away from his popular cable TV interview show and away from spending quality time with his beloved 17-year-old daughter.

Allman was the host of Real 2 Real on San Jose's CreaTV, public access channel 15 during which he would interview a wide spectrum of people from comedian Damon Wayans to members of local gospel groups. His theme was often how to solve community problems especially in the African-American community.

"He was spreading the word on non-violence. He was a mediator. He's just a person that would try to resolve conflict. I just can't believe it," said a shocked Suzanne St. John-Crane, executive director of CreaTV. "The way he was living his life was to use his program to try to talk things through, to discuss pertinent issues. He was real passionate about that."

Dedicated dad


In one videotaped interview on CreaTV, Allman talked about his semi-autobiographical book, "Amazing Grace." In the introduction he described a childhood of abuse and self-hatred and how he managed to overcome it to become a responsible single father: "What would the future hold for me, if I turned my back on my family? No. I've vowed to raise my kids and keep them from doing the negative things that I once did.''

In another of his shows he described his life-loving demeanor: "I want peace. I'm calm as a mother. I've protected my emotions by not being emotional."

Another friend said of Allman's show that it tried to "figure out how we can upgrade and be in a higher consciousness,'' said Qwen Mejia. "This is such a shock to our community, everything he's been about — peace, why can't we stop the killing, what is wrong with the black community?"

Moore said: "He was a proud black man raising his kid. He was very much on other black men about raising their children, taking responsibility and being part of their children's lives. For this to happen and take him out of his child's life, it hurts. I'm really crying.''

Allman had a criminal record, but it was mostly made up of driving misdemeanors resolved long ago. His last conviction was in the mid-1990s and most of his convictions were for driving with a suspended license.

He was big man — 6-foot-1, 240 pounds — whose former boxing days could be seen in his huge arms and impressive bodybuilder's physique.

Johnnie Gray, founder of the East Palo Boxing Club said Allman and his daughter had been involved with boxing and martial arts for many years in East Palo Alto and San Jose.

Gray described Allman as a deeply spiritual man, who wrote plays for church and sang spirituals with the choir on Sunday. He was "always a mild-mannered-type guy." But he assumed something went wrong at work, and Allman feared losing his livelihood after 15 years at the plant.

"Nobody should go kill anyone or do all these crazy things like that," said Gray, " but some people just can't take it, and he couldn't take it." He also said he assumes another life — Allman's — will inevitably be lost before this ordeal ends.

Always soft-spoken

Rhonda Hadnot, the executive assistant to San Jose City Councilman Sam Liccardo, said she has known Allman for two decades, having met him at the True Vine Baptist Church in downtown San Jose.

"He was always so calm and gentle and when he talked, he never raised his voice. He was never adversarial," Hadnot said. "My thinking is there has to have been something that was serious that happened."

James Ragland, a janitorial supervisor at Valley Medical, is good friends with Allman who he described as a very funny person who dreamed of becoming a stand up comedian. The two often discussed life issues and the challenges of being single parents. Ragland last saw Allman at the San Jose Jazz Festival and he was smiling, jolly and in a good mood.

"Something happened between the job and whatever else personally was going on in his life, said Ragland who once worked with Allman as bouncers at the French Quarter night club in Sunnyvale. "A breakdown maybe."

Inside Allman's apartment police found a number of photographs of the suspect posing alongside professional athletes, rappers, politicians and others who were positively drawn to his upbeat message of hope and responsibility.

"Any time you saw him he was happy or cheering people up or telling them they were doing a good job," said Ragland "He always had something humorous to say I don't know what could have happened to make him snap."

As members of San Jose's Emanual Baptist Church, Ragland could not reconcile the hunted suspect with the man he knows and respects.

"He's a Christian man," said a shaken Ragland. "He worshipped Jesus Christ. I never knew that he had any firearms. He never had a violent nature. As a bouncer ...he was able to resolve conflict and be in control. But he was forceful enough to get people out. He was pretty good at it.

"He was a peaceful person."

Contact Sean Webby at 408-920-5003.