Stephen Gaines (Zumbi) of Zion I with his three sons, photo: GoFundMe.

Updated on Aug. 17 at 5:40 p.m. — A GoFundMe campaign has been started for the young sons of East Bay hip-hop artist Stephen B. Gaines, better known as Zumbi of Zion I, who died Friday at a Berkeley hospital, following an altercation with hospital staff and police. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Sunday that Turner had reportedly contracted COVID-19.

The cause of death had not been determined as of Tuesday evening, according to the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau.

“Even with his overabundance of talent, his true passion and purpose was the love and energy he put into his three sons,” read the campaign, organized by friends. “Zumbi’s children were his beautiful beings of light and his desire to elevate and pour himself into his three kings kept him rooted. His legacy will forever live on and bless his children and the love of his life, Millaray Rodriguez Avila, with the knowledge and understanding of who he was as an artist, a father, a devoted partner, and a man.”

Zumbi was 49 and was a patient at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley at the time of his death. The cause of death was not reported as of Sunday at 5:20 p.m., and Berkeley police homicide detectives were investigating a confrontation between a patient (identified by police on Tuesday as Gaines) and hospital staff, and then with officers.

Reading off a prepared statement, Lt. Melanie Turner on Sunday evening said officers responded to multiple calls for assistance at the hospital at 5:16 a.m. on Friday after Gaines became involved in a physical altercation with nurses and hospital security.

“Callers were reporting a patient assaulting numerous nurses and security staff inside the hospital and that security had the patient pinned down,” Turner said.

Turner said she could not release in which part of the hospital the patient had been subdued. When the officers began handcuffing Gaines, they determined that he needed emergency medical assistance and attempted to provide life-saving measures until Alta Bates staff could take over.

“Unfortunately the patient was pronounced deceased at the scene by medical personnel,” she said.

Police are investigating what preceded officers arriving at the hospital. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office was notified of the incident. During a preliminary investigation, it was determined the responding officers did not use any force when interacting with the patient.

The Berkeley Police Department had yet to make an updated statement as of Tuesday evening.

Friends of Gaines had told the San Francisco Chronicle that the MC had asthma and had contracted COVID-19 in July at a concert in Nevada City, in Nevada County, but was recovering.

“Zumbi was one of the most devoted fathers I knew,” said his friend and fellow Oakland musician, Kev Choice. “Outside of music, I only saw him with his boys, doing some type of activity like taking them to soccer, capoeira or just playing at the park. He sacrificed tremendously to be a constant and consistent presence in their lives and seeing them all together was a beautiful example of fatherhood to me.

Choice called Gaines his brother both in music and in life. In music, Gaines helped him release Choice’s album “Love and Revolution” though his own distributor. The two also partnered on a studio space in Oakland and started an experimental music side project as a duo.