It was an act shocking in its brutality - a Yuba City man beaten during an apparent robbery outside his house, then run over twice by a pickup truck, dragged down the street and left to die. But in the two weeks since the murder of Willie Dean Roberts Jr., dozens of Mid-Valley residents have been determined not to let the killing be the last chapter in his life.

Some of those people gathered Sunday in Yuba City for a fundraiser to benefit the family that the 32-year-old Roberts left behind - one of a series of events meant to show the Target employee and father of a 19-month-old daughter did not die in vain.

“This is what happens to good people,” said Chris Sharpe, Roberts’ uncle, as volunteers collected donations from one of the 53 drivers to stop by. “They are compelled to act, and not sit back and watch.”

One of those who acted was Connie Carver, a 20-year-old barista at the Starbucks café on Bogue Road and the benefit’s chief organizer.

She recalled reading about Roberts’ murder the day after - and realizing the victim was the clerk she often greeted at the Target department store.

“It shocked me enough to do something - to make me realize I had to do something,” she said. Soon, she and her Starbucks co-workers were organizing a car wash to benefit Roberts’ widow, Irene, and their daughter, Nichelle. Sunday’s fundraiser produced about $1,500, Carver reported.

The giving had started a week earlier on Oct. 6, barely a week after Roberts’ death. His fellow Target employees had held their own car wash outside the Yuba City store, and relatives said it garnered nearly $10,000 for Irene and Nichelle. Collections from both fundraisers are being directed to a special account at Washington Mutual Bank set up for the two.

But while a community is showing its support for Roberts’ family a carload at a time, family members have their minds on trying to prevent such an attack from happening again. Yuba City police arrested two Yuba City men, Michael Angelo Sanudo and Aaron Richard Ouelette, after the killing. Both men pleaded not guilty of first-degree murder, robbery and gang membership and are being held in the Sutter County Jail.

On a sidewalk a few yards from where baristas hosed and swabbed a white Ford Expedition, a half-dozen relatives gathered for some hushed conversation that floated uneasily between small talk and their efforts to cope with their loss.

The mood became serious when talk turned toward a memorial service scheduled for Thursday in Linda - a service whose sponsor, Good Seed Church of God in Christ, announced it also is launching a nonprofit foundation to help prevent violence by counseling parolees and at-risk young people. (Both Ouelette and Sanudo were on parole at the time of the killing.)

“We don’t want this swept under the rug a week or two after it’s over,” said Chris Sharpe. “We have to remind the world that hate crimes are not acceptable in a civilized society.”

Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune can be reached at 749-4708. You may e-mail him at hyune@appealdemocrat.com