Suspect from UC Berkeley student's viral video arrested

An unhoused man captured on video climbing into a UC Berkeley student's apartment complex — footage that went viral on TikTok — has been arrested, authorities report.

Despite the widespread attention, Berkeley police say there was no contact between the two. They have classified the incident as misdemeanor trespassing.

When officers were slow to respond, the student posted a sped-up version of the security footage on TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 2 million times.

The incident took place last week when Cal student Eden Winograd was walking her dog on Berkeley Way at about 8 p.m. Sept. 15.

While they were walking, an unhoused man "ran toward her," she told police.

Winograd got home safely to her off-campus apartment building, just a block from UC Berkeley, in the 1900 block of Walnut Street.

But seconds after she closed the security gate leading into the lobby, the man climbed over it and came inside.

Winograd said she believed the man was chasing her. Police said they could establish only that he ran in her direction before entering her building, where he had been sleeping.

Security had already kicked him out of the garage once, police said.

That night, it took police more than an hour to respond. Officers "were occupied with other priority incidents, including a missing autistic child and a domestic violence incident," the department said last week in a prepared statement.

Frustrated, Winograd posted about her experience online, including a version of building security footage on TikTok.

After reviewing the footage, police initially thought the man might have been holding a bladed object. They later determined it was "likely a barbecue lighter."

"My heart sank. I was out of breath," she told NBC Bay Area over the weekend. "I don't want to be chased and have to watch someone claw their way up a wall to get into where I live."

When police did respond, the man who had entered her building was gone.

After investigating, officers classified the case as trespassing, which is a misdemeanor.

The next night, Winograd spotted the man sleeping on the sidewalk near Berkeley Way and Walnut Street. She alerted police.

Officers responded and identified the man as 50-year-old Kenneth Kenji Stine.

Police detained Stine and spoke to him that night but did not arrest him.

State law does not permit officers to make an arrest for most misdemeanors if they did not witness the crime, said BPD spokesman Officer Byron White.

Police did, however, forward the case to the Alameda County district attorney's office for review.

As public interest in the case has grown, White said some have asked why the man was not arrested for stalking.

He explained that a stalking charge requires harassment or some type of threat as well as repeated conduct, neither of which appeared to be present here.

White said he also did not want to normalize criminal conduct or minimize the student's experience.

"Having someone come into your apartment complex is alarming," White said. "We want everybody to feel safe."

Kenneth Stine. BPD

On Thursday, Contra Costa County entered a felony warrant into the system for Stine in an unrelated case involving an alleged violation of post-release community supervision, a form of supervised release similar to parole.

At that point, Berkeley police began looking for Stine. They found him lying on the sidewalk at Shattuck and Ashby avenues Saturday afternoon, White said.

BPD arrested Stine in connection with the warrant and the misdemeanor trespassing case, according to booking records.

He is now being held without bail due to the felony warrant. The alleged trespassing violation carries $10,000 bail.

Stine has just one charged case in Alameda County, from June, a misdemeanor related to disobeying a court order.

But he has a long list of arrests, including outside Berkeley, according to public records.

Earlier this year, he was charged with arson after a fire at a Menlo Park coffee shop. He also has an arson conviction from Contra Costa County, KRON4 reported at the time.

Writing on his Facebook page, Stine described "hearing voices in my head continuously," which he attributed in 2021 to what he described as a secret DARPA program capable of reading and transmitting people's thoughts.

He posts regularly on his YouTube channel about the Bible and his daily life.

Speaking with NBC Bay Area over the weekend, students described being followed home or finding trespassers on the property.

"Honestly, it's commonplace to hear that people are being followed," one young woman told the news station. "Not just women. Men, boys, girls of all ages."

As of publication time, Stine had not yet been charged in the new case. He has a hearing set for Wednesday at Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.