Dave Deporis, a well-known folk-influenced singer-songwriter, was killed on Wednesday in Oakland, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. Deporis was reportedly chasing a thief who had just stolen his laptop while he sat in front of a cafe in the Temescal district of Oakland. According to police, the musician grabbed onto the robber’s red Audi SUV as they drove away and was briefly dragged down the street and run over, sustaining injuries which led to his death.
Speaking to the Chronicle, one of Deporis’ close friends, Chris Vogel, said he thought that Deporis stored all of his recordings on the computer; another friend, Robert Martin, believed that it contained an unreleased new album.
Deporis was 40, and had been active as a musician since the 1990s. He was a well-known performer in New York City, famous for doing impromptu performances and asking for little to no money for his shows. As Pitchfork points out, Regina Spektor and My Brightest Diamond shared memories of seeing Deporis perform in The Sidewalk Cafe in NYC’s East Village, and Kimya Dawson shared a full set of his from the venue on Twitter. A memorial for Deporis will be held at Sol Gate Studios in West Oakland on September 9.
I found out that the beautiful musician #DaveDeporis has passed away… I first heard him years ago at Sidewalk Cafe https://t.co/DiI63yfmMD
— regina spektor (@respektor) August 10, 2017
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Now everything you ever were. Swirling in it all as always.
Forever in peace Dave Deporis. Thanks for the music. ❤️https://t.co/b2AJhX1hcS— Kimya Dawson (@mrskimyadawson) August 10, 2017
‘Row Row Row’ exposed his prowess: a song with more ideas grown to full than are contained in most careers.
— DM Stith (@dmstith) August 10, 2017
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bwd_UCiuPww