As a UC Berkeley student rushes to enter her apartment complex at night, a large, unkempt man trails closely behind her, scaling the locked gate with ease before pulling a long, pointed object from his pocket and following her inside.
The chilling encounter was captured in a surveillance camera recording that has racked up more than 2.3 million views on social media.
It’s a moment that Cal junior Eden Winograd says replays frequently in her mind, even now that the suspected trespasser — who has an extensive criminal record including a June arrest on UC Berkeley’s campus — is in custody.
In the Sept. 15 incident, Winograd said the man, who is believed to be unhoused, had begun following her when she was walking her dog, prompting her to run back to her apartment complex. She said she had seen him frequently on the university grounds in front of her building and had an alarming encounter when he yelled at her in the street the prior week.
But nothing compared to the fear she felt when she looked over her shoulder and saw him climbing over the wall in pursuit. She rushed into her elevator, terrified by the thought that when the doors reopened he would be standing on the other side, she said.
“Those seconds in the elevator felt like hours in the moment,” she said. “And then holding my breath until I was locked in my apartment and just completely breaking down, it felt like a horror movie.”
Winograd waited more than an hour for officers with the Berkeley Police Department to respond to her call for help. Berkeley police said that at the time of her call, patrol officers were involved in other high-priority incidents including a domestic violence call and the case of an at-risk missing person.
At around 1:30 a.m., about four hours after the responding officer left, her building security found the man sleeping inside the apartment complex, she said.
The following night, Sept. 16, she spotted him again on the street outside her apartment and called 911. Police responded, identified the suspect as Kenneth Kenji Shrine and submitted a case for misdemeanor trespassing to the Alameda County district attorney’s office for filing consideration. At the time, he was cited and released.
But then on Thursday, a felony arrest warrant was filed for Shrine for alleged violation of post-release community supervision, a type of supervised release similar to parole, in Contra Costa County.
Berkeley police were able to use this warrant to book him into Santa Rita Jail on Saturday, where he is being held pending likely transfer to Contra Costa County, according to the Alameda County district attorney.
He is currently a suspect in multiple criminal cases.
He was arrested on UC Berkeley’s campus on June 11 on suspicion of violating a restraining order filed against him by a university employee and was charged with a misdemeanor, according to Alameda County court documents.
A week later, on June 19, he was taken into custody for allegedly setting fire to an outdoor umbrella at a Menlo Park coffee shop. He subsequently pleaded not guilty to felony arson in San Mateo County, according to reporting from local nonprofit news site the Almanac. The outlet reported that Shrine has a prior felony arson conviction in Contra Costa County as well as convictions for vandalism, battery and violation of probation.
Berkeley police said the long object Shrine pulled from his pocket while following Winograd into her apartment building was believed to be a barbecue lighter.
Although the encounter itself was terrifying, revelations about Shrine’s past have compounded Winograd’s fears.
“It seems like he’s probably really dangerous,” she said.
She said she has nightmares every night and didn’t think she’d feel safe in Berkeley again.
“I’ve gone from being so excited to move here and so proud of myself for getting into this school,” she said, “to itching for graduation so I can finally leave.”
