Erin Sherbert, writing for SF Weekly on Wed, Aug 27:

The Medical Examiner’s Office this morning said it was 22-year-old David Getman who was hit and killed by a Muni bus earlier this week. 

According to police, Getman, a Berkeley resident, was walking along Lyon Street near Geary Boulevard early Monday morning when he was struck by a 38 Gear bus…

This is incredibly sad news, which I just belatedly found out about. David and I met in the fall of 2010, through our work at The Daily Californian. (He had just begun his studies at UC Berkeley; I was a senior.) Even in the early stages of his professional writing career, David had a tremendous, one-in-a-million voice. Take the lede from his review of a Ryan McGinley photography exhibit:

Stripped of clothing and inhibitions, Ryan McGinley’s nymph-like models bound through nature: They climb trees, roll down sand dunes and splash in waterfalls. It makes for an atmosphere at once sensuous and innocent, like his photographs were shot in the Garden of Eden, if Eve hadn’t taken a bite out of that apple and Adam was bi-curious.

That voice—conversational and slyly droll—was something I always looked forward to reading throughout his stint at The Daily Cal.

I’m not going to lie, I had a crush on the guy. He looked like David Byrne, only taller, lankier, more Jewish, and more adorkable. I was disappointed when David turned me down, but he did so in a kind and direct way that’s rare in the gay dating scene (and even rarer among 18-year-olds).

Regrettably, we didn’t stay in touch after I graduated from Berkeley in 2011. I thought we might be able to catch up in person one day, since I lived under the illusion that people in their twenties are practically invincible.

It doesn’t help that the articles about David’s death lack details. What was he doing in San Francisco around 1 a.m. on a Monday? Isn’t there more information about the Muni bus and driver? These unanswered questions almost compel me to start a Serial-like investigation.

But in the end, David and I were just acquaintances.

David 2014 06