Dean Amis is 53 years old and was born in Middlesex England to a British mother and an American father who was in the Air Force and was stationed in Britain during the Vietnam war. He lived with both parents in the Bay Area, where they moved to one year after he was born, until they divorced in 1973. He stayed with his mother who remarried to his stepdad, and whom he had a very difficult relationship with, ultimately running away from home at the young age of 13. From there he jumped from foster home to foster home, and travelled all over the US, jumping from one greyhound bus to the next.
Dean has been in West LA since 1989, having spent a few years most recently in Sacramento. His last steady job was working construction in Sacramento, and he lost that job a month ago, quoting his boss as saying he did good work but doesn’t listen. During his last weeks on the job he developed two hernias, which he needs to get surgically treated before trying to find another job. He is trying to contact the DHS for medical coverage to undergo the surgery and has a meeting set for Tuesday.
Dean has a sister in Fremont, California, whom he calls every two to three years. They had a falling out after she coordinated a job for him as the manager in a 150unit complex his sister co-owned with other partners. He explains that one day he rented out an apartment to a heroin dealer, who then encouraged Dean to try it once. From there, he became increasingly addicted to heroin over an eight month period, often neglecting his duties as the complex manager, and resulting in his sister and her partners firing him from the job. Shortly after, he entered into an altercation where he used a hammer to defend himself against an assailant using a baseball bat, which the court deemed to be assault with a deadly weapon and imprisoned him for four years (of which he only served two). He believes that prison was a blessing in disguise as it forced him to relinquish his heroin addiction.
Dean is a plumber by trade of 16 years (certified in Oklahoma), and is also a certified auto mechanic in California (25 years), as well as being smog certified. He quit drinking a long time ago and no longer abuses any substances other than occasionally smoking weed.