Indecent exposure charges after downtown Berkeley disturbance

A man who approached people in downtown Berkeley last week, while grabbing some of them and making sexual comments, has been charged with indecent exposure, according to police and court papers.

At one point, the man went inside Starbucks and began screaming, Berkeley police said.

When officers found the man, he was exposing himself, according to emergency dispatch traffic reviewed by The Scanner.

It was a busy morning for BPD: Officers made a separate arrest downtown at the same time after noticing a man who was wanted in connection with a commercial burglary as well as an attack on a stranger involving "caustic chemicals," authorities said in response to Scanner inquiries.

The incident began June 4 shortly before 8 a.m. when police were called to Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way about a man wearing a red tank top and pink trousers who was making sexual comments and, in some cases, "reaching to touch people or grabbing them on the chest, back or shoulders," police said.

Police were able to detain the man with the help of UCPD officers in the area and he was initially taken to a local hospital for evaluation, authorities said.

Hamilton Shutts. BPD

The man was subsequently identified as 35-year-old Hamilton Shutts (no address).

On Monday, June 10, Shutts was booked into Berkeley Jail and arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure, soliciting lewd acts, battery and probation violation.

The Alameda County DA's office has now charged him with a single count of misdemeanor indecent exposure.

Shutts was also charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure last year in July.

He spent 11 days in jail and then entered a no-contest plea in that case, which put him on probation through July 20 of this year.

As of publication time, Shutts was still in custody in Santa Rita Jail with arraignment set for Wednesday, according to records online. No bail amount was listed.

Suspect in bus stop attack, burglary also arrested

As police were looking for Shutts downtown, they "were also confronted" by a man they had been looking for in connection with a recent commercial burglary and random attack at a bus stop downtown, BPD said.

They found 36-year-old Jeremy Young (no address) near the main branch of the Berkeley Public Library.

According to charging papers, Young had broken into Cricket Wireless, at 2163 Shattuck Ave., at about 5:30 a.m. June 2.

Police said he was caught on camera during the break-in kicking in the front window for a second man who went inside and stole $1,800 in merchandise.

A Berkeley police officer spotted Young and another man near Cricket after the burglary — but had not yet seen the security footage that helped solve the case, BPD wrote.

"During a mirandized interview, Young admitted to breaking the window and identified himself [in the footage]," police said in charging papers.

Young denied knowing the man who was with him that morning, authorities said.

Jeremy Young. BPD

About 12 hours after the Cricket burglary, a man in his 40s was waiting for the bus near Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way when a stranger — later identified by police as Young — approached him while talking loudly to himself, BPD said.

"Because he was concerned about the other man standing so close to him and talking to himself, the man started recording the other man with his cellphone," police said in response to a Scanner inquiry. Young "continued talking to himself and pulled an aerosol can from his backpack."

Young then sprayed the pedestrian in the face, as well as on his skin and clothing, BPD said.

As of Tuesday, Young had not been charged with that random attack, according to available court records.

But the Alameda County DA's office did charge him last week with commercial burglary, which is a felony, according to court records. He has entered a not-guilty plea.

Young has had several other felony cases in Alameda County, according to court records online: a commercial burglary in 2017 to which he ultimately pled no contest and was placed on three years of probation, which he repeatedly violated; a felony domestic violence and assault case in 2020 that was dismissed that year by the DA's office; and a felony robbery case in 2021 that resulted in a plea deal for the lesser related charge of felony assault, resulting in probation, which he repeatedly violated.

He also had a misdemeanor battery case in 2020, which took place on school, park or hospital property, where a no-contest plea resulted in unsupervised probation.

As of this week, Young remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail with a bail of $21,000, according to booking records online.

He is scheduled for a pretrial hearing June 20.