Rialto's Eisenhower High School basketball coach Steve Johnson shot in San Bernardino

SAN BERNARDINO - Steve Johnson, Eisenhower High School's popular award-winning boy's basketball coach, remained in a Loma Linda hospital Tuesday night, recovering from gunshot wounds that he said were the result of a robbery at a local park.

Johnson, 47, of Yucaipa, was shot several times in his upper torso, after stopping at Seccombe Lake Park on Fifth Street in San Bernardino Monday night before 8 p.m. to use the bathroom on his way to get gasoline, San Bernardino police said.

Johnson said he was approached by three unidentified black men, Sgt. Gary Robertson said.

The men demanded his wallet then shot Johnson with a handgun, striking him several times in his upper body, police said. Friends of Johnson's said he was struck four times, including once in the abdomen and once in the arm.

The men fled on foot having taken no property, police said. Johnson drove himself to a nearby police station where he was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

The wounds were not life-threatening, police said, but news of the incident has rippled through the Rialto community, where school district officials, students and parents expressed shock over how the well-liked athletic director and former math teacher would end up the victim of gun violence, which in San Bernardino last year resulted in 47 homicides.

"We are shocked and saddened at this horrific news," said Syeda Jafri, spokeswoman for the Rialto Unified School District.

Harry Stenzhorn, a friend of Johnson's who visited the Eagles coach in the hospital, said Johnson was alert but in a lot of pain.

"This certainly shouldn't happen to a person like this," Stenzhorn said. "He would always go the extra mile for you and not just those he knew, anyone."

Johnson was inducted into the Rialto Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 and was chosen as the The Sun's and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2010.

Eisenhower won California's Division II state title in 2009 with a record of 32-3 - the first San Bernardino County boys basketball team to ever reach a state title game.

"The outpouring of love and support from not only the Rialto education community but all over the Inland Empire for this championship human being has been tremendously overwhelming," Jafri said.

"Steve Johnson's selflessness and unyielding dedication to the children of Rialto is matched by his kind spirit. Our hearts at this time are with coach Johnson's family."

The Eagles played their regularly scheduled Citrus Belt League game Tuesday night, where they routed Redlands High School, 62-33.

Those in the park Tuesday afternoon said the site has fallen apart in recent years.

Indeed, piles of trash have collected in the parking lots. The restrooms are locked, plastered with graffiti and smell of the soiled diapers and human feces laying near the outside walls.

"It used to be a really, really nice place," said Michael Patton, 65. "Families came. This used to be a beautiful place. You could walk through it at night. This place is destitute."

Patton said he likes to relax at the park in the afternoon. But he always leaves by sundown.

"If you're here after 8 o'clock, you're either homeless or looking for something," Patton said. "I wouldn't show up here after 8 o'clock."

A 40-year-old homeless man named "Kevin" said one takes chances by spending time in the park.

"I don't think this town is safe for me period," he said. "I'm homeless. I'm white. You're probably safer walking the streets. It's dangerous (in the park)."

Anyone with information on this case should contact the San Bernardino Police Department at 909-384-5742, or the Hot Line at 909-384-5656.

Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/breakingnews/ci_22425153/rialto-high-school-basketball-coach-shot#ixzz2IlvxnMjX

Many years a guy named Patrick Knowlton had to stop in a park to tinkle. That was Ft. Marcy Park. He was there when they dumped Vince’s body. Memoralized in song -

Skip to comments.(reprise) DFU SONG: Battle of New Orleans (the Vince Foster body moving anniversary song)
DFU SONGS | 7-2006 | Lyrics, Doug from Upland

Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 4:07:29 PM by doug from upland

I met Patrick Knowlton. He was one of the keys to the case. How Vince got to the park has still never been solved. Trooper Roger Perry was on duty at the Governor’s Mansion in Arkansas when he received the phone call from Helen Dickey (Chelsea’s nanny). That call was at about the time the body was found. Clinton claims he found out a couple hours later when he was on Larry King. Dickey lied in her testimony to D’Amato’s committee and claimed she learned about the death hours later. Perry and Larry Patterson wanted to testify but D’Amato refused to call them. Had they testified, that would have ended the Clinton presidency.

MIDI - BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
http://www.karaokeplayer.net/songlist2.html

I’m stuck in traffic and really had to pee
And can’t believe this kind of thing is happenin’ to me
I’m lookin’ for a restroom but there isn’t one to find
So I know that trouble’s brewin’ and I’m really in a bind

I tensed all up but I knew I wouldn’t make it
That mean old Mother Nature is the one I’ve often cursed
I’d hold my breath but knew I couldn’t fake it
If I’m not pullin’ over soon my bladder’s gonna burst

A mile down the road I think I might a seen a sign
And I think it said McDonalds and to me that’s mighty fine
I’m shakin’ all over, people thought it was a dance
But there’s no way in Hades that I wanna mess my pants

The pain was growin’ so I’m pullin’ over quick
I just gotta find a place because I think I’m gettin’ sick
I saw “Ft. Marcy” and I started yelling “hark!”
There will be a tree and I will just go tinkle in the park

Well, I jump from my car but there’s some fella watchin’
He’s glarin’, I know that he’s as mean as he could be
I quickly walk to a tree by a cannon
I didn’t want no trouble I just had to take a pee

I’m zippin’ my zipper and I’m getting’ in my car
But the thug is there, I’m wonderin’ if I’ll be gettin’ far
I saw two cars that later I was able to describe
I’d tell the truth, I’d tell it straight and never take a bribe

I tensed all up but I knew I wouldn’t make it
And mean old Mother Nature is the one I’ve often cursed
I’d hold my breath but knew I couldn’t fake it
If I’m not pullin’ over soon my bladder’s gonna burst

Then harassment was startin’ by some guys a packin’
They were watchin’, they’re bumpin’ me wherever I would go
‘Cause that’s the time that they dumped poor ol’ Foster
Those guys had done him in that day, I didn’t even know

When I was eight years old, in 1960, my parents moved from a California beach to South Gate, California.

The neighborhood was mostly populated by elderly, retired whites of middle income. The homes were modest, neat and clean. We lived behind the South Gate Library, just down the street from the Police Station.

My parents had both been born in Los Angeles and thought it perfectly safe for me to walk the few blocks to elementary school.

Then there was South Gate Municipal Park, which had olympic-sized swimming pools located amidst beautiful lawns and large deciduous trees.

It was heart-breaking to discover just ten years ago that the City of South Gate had become Tijuana North, with a corrupt city government dominated by Hispanic immigrant families practising nepotism and only God knows what else. I’ve been told that it isn’t safe for whites to go there.

San Bernardino sounds like the same.

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