TIE death article

[PAWN707]

The tragic death of street artist Jon See Lim.

By A. Clay Thompson

ABOUT 1:15 a.m. on March 18, William Porter, a 51-year-old photographer, was
awakened by a noise outside the open window of his Tenderloin apartment. He
says he saw somebody trying to break in, so he grabbed his .38 revolver.

A few seconds later, 18-year-old Jon See Lim was lying in the parking lot at
the bottom of the metal stairs outside Porter's door. He had been shot in the
back of the head.

Details of the shooting are still sketchy. The police report quotes a witness
saying she saw a man climbing out the window shouting, "Wait, man, hold on," as
a shot was fired. Porter told the Bay Guardian that Lim tried to grab the gun,
and it accidentally went off.

The brief reports in the daily newspapers said that Lim was killed during an
apparent break-in.

But behind the story is a terrible urban tragedy. Lim's friends say he'd never
robbed a house and that his mission that night almost certainly involved a much
less serious crime. Lim was a well-known graffiti artist who used the tag Tie.
He was probably, his friends say, climbing the drainpipe outside Porter's
window in an effort to make his public mark on a very visible rooftop. Spray
paint was found in his backpack.

"His handprints are all over the pipe," a bereaved friend, who asked not to be
identified by name, told the Bay Guardian. He and Lim's other friends say Lim
may have been using Porter's window ledge to boost himself onto the drainpipe.

Officer Steven Haskell, who arrived on the scene moments after the shooting,
noted in his report that he found "a large, black target silhouette" attached
to the inside of Porter's door. Police seized the .38 and a rifle from Porter's
apartment.

No charges have been filed against Porter, although the District Attorney's
Office is still investigating the case.

Porter told the Bay Guardian that the shooting was an accident. "I was asleep.
I heard a noise and saw someone attempting to enter my window. I retrieved a
firearm and I informed him, 'I have a gun.' [Lim] reached out and grabbed the
gun, and it accidentally discharged," he said.

Lim's friends say Porter should have been arrested. "It's been days and that
guy's not in jail for killing my friend," a street artist told the Bay
Guardian. "If [Lim] would have got caught bombing [painting] that rooftop, he
would have done at least two days -- that night and the day after when he got a
court date."

John Shanley, spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office, says his office
may still press charges against Porter. "The case is open, under investigation,
and being taken very seriously," Shanley told the Bay Guardian.

"Tie was a Buddhist," one friend said. "His life was based on living simply and
doing art. He had friends throughout the country."

"Amid a constant bombardment of advertising, billboards, drugs, homelessness,
and other urban ills Jon Lim used what many urban youth look to for empowerment
and a sense of self and being," friend and fellow artist Barry McGee told the
Bay Guardian. "Jon, like thousands of other youth, found an accepting family
and culture in graffiti and street art. This was his life. He drew constantly
on and off the streets. Jon revived the streets with 'I'm here,' 'This is me,'
coming straight from the heart."

Local street artists note disturbing similarities between Lim's death and the
1995 murder of César René Arce in Los Angeles. Like Lim, Arce was an
18-year-old nonwhite graffiti artist killed by a middle-aged white male. The
Los Angeles district attorney filed misdemeanor gun charges against 35-year-old
William Masters three months after he admitted shooting Arce and another
graffiti artist, David Hillo, 20.

A few days after Lim's death, on Sunday, March 22, about 45 friends attended a
prayer vigil at 120 Taylor. Walking quietly past Lim's bicycle, still locked to
a pole a few feet from the site of his death, the multiracial congregation
burned incense and left offerings. "No one goes over any Tie tags," one
graffiti artist said, addressing the group. "They stay part of the city
permanently."

Lim was buried March 25 in Daly City. Sources close to the Lim family say the
family is considering a wrongful death suit.
--{Pawn}--

[Dylan McKaye]

thats a good article, i didnt like the first one eveyones probably read
that basically said he was a burgaler... was this in a major
publication?
asasn

--
GOVERNMENT CHEESE
http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/galliano/57/govtcheese.html

[HelmetHeds]

Dylan McKaye wrote:
>
> thats a good article, i didnt like the first one eveyones probably read
> that basically said he was a burgaler... was this in a major
> publication?
> asasn

yeah, the San Francisco Chronicle.

HelmetHeds

[KS]

no... this one (the more complete one) wasn't in the chronicle.. it
was in the guardian...
ks

[Walliwagon]

>was this in a major
>publication?

Major in the sense that they have newsstands all around the Bay Area. Not in
the sense that they're an independent paper, and no one cares what these damn
liberals have to say.

-walley
they publish "this modern world". answer your question?
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[Grafyogi]

TIE was a true graf-man.........he will not be forgetten.R.I.P TIE oNe S.F
KING.

[Streetfame]

is the article online?

[Walliwagon]

>is the article online?

Depends which one. The Chronicle one, yeah, somewhere, but it's, like,
practically impossible to search for.

-walley
no references to tie or graf anywhere