SANTA CRUZ – Former Santa Cruz activist and Occupy Wall Street participant Robert Grodt was marching in darkness near the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, when he was killed in a blast late July 5 or early the next morning, his family told the Sentinel.

Grodt, 28, has been called a martyr by the People’s Defense Units, a Kurdish force known as YPG that is fighting the Islamic State. YPG also announced that American Nicholas Warden and British citizen Luke Rutter died in combat.

Grodt, originally from Simi Valley, lived in Santa Cruz before joining the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. In New York, Grodt was serving as a medic in the Occupy movement. There, he met his partner, Kaylee Dedrick, who had been pepper sprayed by police.

In 2009 and 2010, Grodt was a team leader with Grassroots Campaigns, a nonprofit that conducts canvasses, in Santa Cruz, his former boss Spike Murphy told the Sentinel.

“He helped train people. He was particularly good at it,” Murphy said.

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Grodt’s oldest sister, Stephanie Eason of Simi Valley, told the Sentinel by phone that the family has received a medical report from her brother’s death while fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

“He died instantly in the field and they had to get some of the wounded back so they had to leave him in the field,” Eason said. A subsequent mission recovered Grodt’s body soon after.

The family learned about Grodt’s death Saturday, Eason said. Grodt’s 4-year-old daughter has not been told about the bombing.

“He’s always been Robin Hood,” Eason said. “He will solve any problem. You could count on Robert.”

A gofundme.com account created Tuesday has raised almost $2,000 for Grodt’s partner and child.

“On July 6, Rob and several comrades were killed during a particularly fierce gun battle, taking back the ISIS caliphate’s capital of Raqqa in vicious street-by-street gunbattles,” YPG supporter and fundraiser organizer Justin Woodruff wrote in the gofundme campaign.

Eason said her brother knew the risks of battle.

“He went to Syria (the end of February) knowing he was going to receive training and would be placed in situations like that,” Eason said. “He was willing to do whatever it took.”

Corey Mynatt, who grew up with Grodt, said his best friend wasn’t scared of combat.

“He was excited,” Mynatt said. “That’s who he was. He’s always had really strong ideologies.”

The YPG released a video Wednesday of Grodt’s last scout report in Syria.

In the video, Grodt describes the experience of fighting with a multilingual group in an international struggle.

“This is a fire that may have started here, but it can kindle elsewhere,” Grodt said of the pressure to dismantle ISIS. “I started paying attention to the Kurdish struggle around 2004. … I had friends who came to help. I had just started a family.”

When a close friend left to fight with the Kurdish forces last year, Grodt became certain he would fight in the Middle East.

“I was like, I gotta go,” Grodt said.