OAKLAND — For the last several weeks, people have been coming to Lake Merritt in droves, leaving touching tributes to a mystery street salesman who was a longtime fixture at Lake Merritt. They’ve left notes like “RIP Willie” and “Go With the Ancestors” under the arches where he would peddle his quaint assortment of knickknacks.

Yet as it turns out, the reports of the man’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Willie Ellis, 62, is in fact not dead. On Tuesday, he gave an interview to this newspaper from his bed at Fairmont Hospital, a rehabilitative care center in San Leandro. He appeared frail and groggy, but was certainly very much alive.

Ellis said he has been hospitalized ever since July 21, when two men jumped him while he was riding his bicycle on Fifth Avenue not far from Lake Merritt. He said they beat and choked him and stole his bicycle, a laptop, a cellphone and a Golden State Warriors jacket, among other belongings.

According to an Oakland Police Department report, Ellis briefly lost his pulse while paramedics were rushing him to Highland Hospital, but medical staff were eventually able to stabilize him. Ellis said Highland transferred him to Fairmont, where he is a patient against his will.

“They keep asking me, ‘Do you got a place to go?’ and I tell them I got places to go,” he said. “I am not a prisoner. You can’t hold me here.”

When a reporter showed Ellis pictures of the shrine that well-wishers erected for him at Lake Merritt, he began to sob.

“They think I’m dead cuz I used to be there all the time,” he said. “No one knows I’m in here.”

Willie used to spread out his blanket beneath the arches across from Our Lady of Lourdes Church and meticulously set out his wares. When he suddenly stopped coming, word began to circulate by mouth and on social media that he had died. Not knowing Willie’s last name until a reader called Tuesday, this newspaper was not able to confirm his supposed death from official sources at the time. Alameda County coroner’s officials had said they did not have anyone fitting his description from the time period in question. It’s unclear who started the rumor that he was dead, but it spread like wildfire.

While people thought Ellis was dead, he was in fact in the hospital recovering from a brutal attack, according to the Oakland Police Department and one witness account. Pamela Turner, an Oakland resident who lives near Lake Merritt, said she was driving to work about 5:30 a.m. on July 21 when she encountered another woman running down the street. The woman told Turner that a man was yelling for help across the street from the Church of All Faiths in the 2100 block of Fifth Avenue.

Turner said the women called 911 and stayed with Ellis, whom she recognized from the neighborhood, until paramedics and firefighters arrived. She said it was a cold morning and he was scantily clad, so they covered him with their coats. “He said he wanted water and I said, ‘I can go and get you some water,’ but he said, ‘Please don’t leave me,’ ” Turner said. “When we laid him on his side, he started breathing worse and started foaming at the mouth. By the time the paramedics arrived a few minutes later he was unconscious.”

Turner said she called Highland Hospital several times to try to find out his condition, but was unable to obtain any information because she wasn’t a family member. She was shocked to hear reports — that turned out to be mere rumors — that he had died.

OPD said it is offering a $7,500 reward for information leading to the arrests of the suspects. Police said Ellis had also been beaten and robbed in June.

Ellis said he doesn’t know when he will be released. He doesn’t have any family members living in the area. He said he just wants to get out of the hospital and back to his former life.

Contact Tammerlin Drummond at 510-208-6468. Follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin.