In 1967, the height of the Summer of Love, Scott McKenzie sang, “If you’re going to San Francisco, you’re going to meet some gentle people there … in the streets of San Francisco, gentle people with flowers in their hair.”
In other words, the hippies. And where did they lead the city by the Bay? To such a gentle state that a man described as a “beloved cyclist” and hockey player died trying to defend a mother from a man who, from all appearances, was insane.
Just another day in blue city paradise, folks.
According to KGO-TV, 28-year-old Colden Kimber died July 26 after the six-foot-four-inch athlete tried to protect a mom and her two kids at a light rail stop in the city.
“He would stand up & do something about it.” Friends & family mourn loss of Colden Kimber, who was fatally stabbed while protecting group at @SFMTA_Muni bus stop at Ocean & Lee. Sean Collins arrested by @SFPD & charged by @SFDAOffice @BrookeJenkinsSF w/murder. @AmberKTVU reports pic.twitter.com/4r0kYlRWd3
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) August 2, 2025
Officers arrived at the scene to find him suffering from a stab wound, but he died at a local hospital, KRON-TV reported. The suspect, 29-year-old Sean Collins, was a San Francisco resident.
KGO reported Sunday on further details of the alleged murder, which show exactly the type of heroism that — for reasons that are too sadly evident — is missing in blue cities like San Francisco.
Kimber, who was studying at San Francisco State University and worked at a store called American Cyclery, got in the way of Collins as he harassed a mother of two with her children, police said.
Should America have off-shore prison colonies for criminals who refuse to reform?
“Oh you think you are better than me,” or “You are scared of me,” Collins was allegedly yelling, according to court documents.
Kimber then “decided to position himself … so should anything happen, [he] could intervene and protect those around him.”
At that point, with Kimber standing with his eyes facing the approaching light rail train, he was attacked: “Completely and utterly unprovoked — took a knife and stabbed the unsuspecting victim on the right side of his neck,” the documents said.
Friends and family of the upstate New York native were at a loss for what happened to him.
“There is no making sense of this and no words to convey the devastation we are feeling,” said his mom, Lara Litchfield-Kimber, on an online fundraising page, according to the New York Post.
“It was so horrendous and shocking and the last person that I would expect something like that to happen to,” said Reuben Sawyer, a friend of Kimber’s, KGO reported.
“I’m going to miss him for his good nature and his kind spirit, and he really lived such and exemplary life. He was a very positive influence on myself and my staff,” said Bradley Woehl, who owned the store where Kimber worked.
“He worked here three years, and this up here was his work bench that he repaired bikes and built new bikes,” he added, showing KGO reporters. “He is totally irreplaceable as a worker, and totally irreplaceable as a friend and person and someone who had a good influence in my life.”
This is exemplary behavior — but part of the problem is that he lives in a city where that isn’t rewarded, like most blue cities. In fact, when a former Marine named Daniel Penny restrained an obviously insane man on the New York City subway who was threatening riders in a similar manner, the Manhattan district attorney had him charged after an outcry from social justice warriors.
In this case, Kimber gave his life while not restraining the man who was threatening a mom just trying to use the train without being harassed, allegedly. And … crickets, mostly. Don’t expect any more coverage when the suspect, charged with murder, is arraigned on Aug. 14.
And it’s not just observers of the case that thinks that the alleged killer was suffering from serious mental health issues. Superior Court of California online documents show that Collins was given a 4011.6 evaluation. That refers to California Code, Penal Code, Section 4011.6:
If it appears to the person in charge of a county jail, city jail, or juvenile detention facility, or to any judge of a court in the county in which the jail or juvenile detention facility is located, that a person in custody in that jail or juvenile detention facility may have a mental health disorder, that person or judge may cause the prisoner to be taken to a facility for 72-hour treatment and evaluation pursuant to Section 5150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code and shall inform the facility in writing, which shall be confidential, of the reasons that the person is being taken to the facility. The local mental health director or the director’s designee may examine the prisoner prior to transfer to a facility for treatment and evaluation.
Of course, in San Francisco, he practically blends in with no shortage of people with mental illness. And meanwhile, back on the East Coast, New York City — them again — has a Democratic nominee for mayor that promises to set up a Department of Community Safety to deal with mentally ill types in place of police intervention, assumedly so that they can get stabbed standing in between a crazy man and a mother of two. Big government at work, ladies and gentlemen.
This, in short, sounds like the city which those gentle folk with flowers in their hair hath wrought a half-century and change later, with a little help from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who ran the city for seven years and has run the state for almost the same amount of time. Hope it was all worth it.
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