Nine years ago, Kelly Bennett was a photo store clerk hailed as a hero for preventing a would-be bomb massacre at De Anza College in Cupertino.
Now, the 28-year-old’s own life is in peril.
In May, Bennett was diagnosed with a rare form cancer at the base of her skull.
She’s had one surgery, which didn’t remove all of the cancer. Now her family wants to try a cutting-edge technology called proton beam therapy at the Loma Linda University Medical Center to stop the growth of the remaining tumor.
They’re hosting a Hawaiian-themed fundraiser with food and music on Saturday at De Anza to help pay for past medical treatment and housing costs while Kelly and her mother move to San Bernardino County for a couple of months. Their goal is to raise $50,000.
“Kelly literally saved dozens, if not hundreds of lives,” said San Jose police officer Mike Ruybal, who is on the board of the Keith Kelley Club, which helps other police officers. “This guy was really going to do a number on the school. And now, here she is struggling for her life.”
“This guy” refers to former De Anza student, Al Joseph DeGuzman, who was convicted of plotting a bomb and gun attack on the Cupertino college in January 2001. The attack was thwarted with a phone call Bennett made to San Jose police. She was working at a Long’s drugstore in the Berryessa neighborhood at the time, and had just developed a batch of photos displaying guns and bombs.
First, she checked in at home with her parents, Bob Bennett, a retired San Jose police sergeant and her mother, Lori Bennett, who used to work in the department’s supply office. Both told her to call 911.
She did.
That call led San Jose police to DeGuzman’s North San Jose home on Jan. 30, on the day of the intended attack, where officers found an arsenal of weapons and an attack plan on his computer.
In 2004, DeGuzman, who was convicted and sentenced to an 80-year sentence, hanged himself in prison.
Bennett was hailed a hero and asked to make the rounds on several network TV stations, but her life has also been challenging ever since.
Not only did she discover a tumor at the base of her skull, and is suffering from double vision and headaches after her surgery, but “it’s hard to have that kind of notoriety,” Lori Bennett said.
Bennett dropped out of San Jose State University, where she was enrolled in broadcast journalism at the time, got a degree from a fashion school, and for the last two years, has been bartending and waitressing in Minnesota.
When school shootings occur somewhere in the country, reporters track Bennett down for a sound bite, which her daughter finds upsetting, her mother said. She also didn’t like testifying in court against DeGuzman; her mother said seeing him face to face was difficult.
“She wasn’t afraid of him, but she was wondering what happened to him to make him want to hurt other people,” Lori Bennett said.
Still, Bennett has told her family, which includes six other siblings, she would have done it again.
“She told me, ‘Mom, I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t had done anything,'” Lori Bennett said of her daughter. “She did a wonderful thing. She’s a really good person.”
Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002.
If you’re interested in helping Kelly Bennett
The fundraiser to help pay for her brain tumor treatment is Aug. 21 at 5 p.m. at De Anza College in the Sunken Garden, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. It will be a Hawaiian luau theme with a catered dinner. Hula dancers and a band will entertain. Adults are $25. Children are $12.
If you can’t make it but still want to donate, click on http://web.me.com/laurenerobbins/The_Kelly_Bennett_Benefit/Welcome.html. Or, checks can be made payable to any Wells Fargo bank, c/o Kelly Bennett, account number 1763758610.
