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Menlo Park resident Andres Alberto Henriquez Gomez, 52, has been identified as the man who died after he was assaulted in East Palo Alto on Sept. 3, according to East Palo Alto police.
The suspect, who was quickly arrested and booked into the San Mateo County Jail, has been identified as Angel Lopez Ibarra Jr., 53, of East Palo Alto, police said.
Officers responded last week to reports of a man acting erratically and disrobing in public, arriving at the scene near the intersection of Runnymede Street and University Avenue at approximately 2:21 p.m., according to the report. When they arrived, officers found Gomez suffering from significant facial injuries.
Gomez reported that he had been assaulted by the suspect, who was detained by the police shortly after the assault.
Less than three hours after police arrived at the scene, Stanford Hospital medical staff notified the police department that Gomez had succumbed to his injuries and died.
Ibarra was booked on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injury and causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony, police said Tuesday.
According to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, his office has yet to receive the case and no charges have been filed.
Ibarra has a lengthy criminal history in the county and was on probation at the time of Sept. 3 incident.
Ibarra’s probation stemmed from when he pled no contest to three counts of felony vandalism for smashing the windows of 14 cars in East Palo Alto with a metal pipe on June 14, 2021, according to Wagstaffe.
On Feb. 18, 2024, he fired a gun into a building near Pal Market in East Palo Alto but no one was injured, Wagstaffe said. In March 2025, Ibarra was sentenced to two years in prison for the case but served no additional jail time because he had earned credit for time served.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” East Palo Alto Police Chief Jeff Liu wrote in the statement.
Gomez’s family is raising money on GoFundMe after his unexpected death.
“The violence he suffered severely affected his health and, sadly, ultimately took his life,” his family wrote in Spanish. “His unexpected passing has left our family devastated and facing very difficult times and expenses.”
East Palo Alto had not reported a homicide in more than two years, police said.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated with additional information from the District Attorney’s Office and from the victim’s GoFundMe.
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Definitely a sad story, but I don’t know why Gomez’s family did not do something to help him long before this incident. Most days he was walking along Newbridge/Bay streets drunk out of his mind, stumbling, and even sometimes rolling around in traffic asking for money to buy more alcohol. Convicting the accused for his death will be pretty hard because there have been a good number of medical calls for him after he took some really hard falls while blackout drunk. The other participant in this incident always seemed much more dangerous, but the victim was a real burden on the community with his behavior.