After a Black student at the University of California-Berkeley introduced an unhoused Washington, D.C., man who says he has prostate cancer, to the public via a viral TikTok video, revelations about his troubled past have emerged. Despite her initial perception of the man she affectionately called “Unc,” as a benign individual, new reports suggest he has a history of violence against others in the unsheltered community.
Sanai Graden, who uses the TikTok handle @hustlanani, reports she did not mean to deceive anyone when she posted a video of her day with Alonzo Douglas Hebron on the internet and then later raised over $400,000 on GoFundMe to help him get back on his feet.
Graden says she had done an act of service for a homeless man: she got him some tea, bought him medicine, and set him up in a hotel for the night.
Her video gained over an outstanding 31.6 million views on her page.
Now, a local station is reporting that Hebron has an extensive criminal record, has spent considerable time in and out of prison over the years, and has a violent streak.
In a video from 2020, brought to the public’s attention after Graden’s footage took the internet by storm, shows a man authorities say was he was placing a scarf over a victim’s head as she slept outside the Foundry United Methodist Church on P Street in Northwest D.C. He proceeded to repeatedly strike her face and body for several minutes.
The woman says who was attacked by “Unc,” says she is “speechless” thinking about the assault and seeing Graden’s video.
“I do not understand how a human being can act like this. He’s a sociopath. He does not have a sense of remorse,” she said in an interview with FOX 5 DC.
“I’ve been struggling since then. I’m an alcoholic in recovery, Last week was my 18-month anniversary,” she revealed. She also said that once the video started circulating over the last couple of days, she almost threw her sobriety away.
“I came close,” the Jane Doe said. “But I didn’t because he’s not worth it.”
Department of Justice records show that in November 2012, Hebron received a five-year prison sentence for stabbing a man in the neck with a screwdriver during a confrontation on Queen Street in Northeast D.C.
Authorities have records of him committing other assaults and robberies.
When he was done serving time for one of his more recent crimes, Hebron was sent to a halfway house in June 2023 after his release, Washington court records report.
Sanai Graden a college student in California was stopped by this homeless gentleman Alonzo who just wanted a cup of tea She did more than that, he then shared he was battling prostate cancer Sanai started a gofund me in less than 24 hrs has raised $166K
— Nicole (@Nprezzed) February 1, 2024
💕 https://t.co/ZrfQphALFO pic.twitter.com/pIMjKAEyRy
However, he escaped and was later apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service. The exact date of his subsequent release is unclear.
The victim said his history of violence is making the city unsafe, something the young student would have never known. She was just being nice.
“First of all – kudos to the woman who did this. She meant well, and I do applaud her for that. I know it was a lot of work for her to do so, but portraying him as something he just simply isn’t,” she said.
With this new information, the GoFundMe campaign, which raised $403,900 within just seven days, has been frozen by the crowdfunding company and is now under investigation.
Hebron’s fund has been suspended, and the feel-good story seems to have turned dark. However, there is a silver lining. A GoFundMe page is being raised for the student by her mother. The idea is to do something nice for the young woman, who went out her way and spent her grocery money, to help a stranger.
The goal was to raise money for her tuition at Berkley. Within six days, and even before it was revealed that Hebron had a sinister history, people poured in to pay it forward, raising $19,740 in six days.
