Twenty-six year old Alex Madias is hospitalized in the East Bay after the random robbery attempt.
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The victim's brother Theo Madias said, "The hardest part for me is looking at tubes and pipes coming out of him. It's looking at the small scar at the front of his head where the bullet exited. There's something eerie about that, a bullet coming through a person's head and coming out the other side."
The family says Madias was walking with his friend, pulling his friend's suitcase to the Amtrak station at 9:15 p.m. on February 11 and heard someone yell, "give me your money."
Alex's brother says he and his friend didn't know the suspect was armed and kept walking. That's when he was shot once in the back of his head in Emeryville. The suspect escaped on foot.
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Emeryville police chief Jennifer Tejada described the suspect as a dark skinned male, 18 to 25 years old, wearing dark clothing.
Police are scouring surveillance video and are asking for help from other businesses for even more video to piece together what happened. In the past Alex Madias dressed up in Star Wars costumes to visit kids in hospitals and at community events. He raised guide dogs for the blind and worked as a software engineer.
His family is still in shock. His brother says, "Alex would give the shirt off his back to the person who shot him. Even today. That's just Alex. He remains in critical condition. The family has set up a Gofundme account for Alex. It's already raised about $100,000.
Click here to donate to the fund for Alex.