Photographer Daniel “Dano” Patten Killed in Illegal Car Race
A photographer and videographer was a victim of an illegal car race that happened at 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Day. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the horrible event occurred close to East 230th and Banning Streets.
The Photographer was identified as Daniel “Dano” Patten, 66, who lived in Huntington Beach.
According to his friend and a couple of the guys with him, he got some warnings before the race, so he was aware of the danger. “I did tell him on Christmas, be careful going out to the street races,’” said his friend, Irvine. A couple of the guys who were with him said, ‘Hey Dano, we need to leave, this is dangerous today.”
His girlfriend, Tammy LaFlamme, said:” Illegal street racing totally wasn’t his scene.” She believes that due to many events canceled to reduce the spread of COVID-19, it was boredom that may have got the photographer to an occasion that he would usually pass up.
Footage that was posted on social media shows a black Cadillac sedan racing a blue car, which crashed into each other and then went into a nearby crowd of people. In another video, a struck spectator’s legs could be seen lying on the ground in a close distance from the two destroyed vehicles.
Patten, who was taking pictures of the cars, was killed instantly, and five others were hospitalized. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Morgan stated that the race drivers escaped the place after the car crash.
His family members sensed that something terrible might have happened as Patten didn’t join his brother for dinner. Tammy didn’t hear anything from him all night, so she went to Carson with some friends the next morning. That’s when they found his van together with pieces of the cars that killed him.
Mourners have laid candles, flowers, and other presents under a tree near the crashed cars’ scattered pieces and the tire marks. Many people who knew Patten from his photos and videos joined in paying tribute to him. Some of them even carried out performances in their lowriders, honoring his soul and telling his brother how much he would be missed.
“Devastated that he died on Christmas like this, and all of our friends are devastated,” his girlfriend said. She also added that he was the kindest man with the biggest heart and had a great passion for cars. LaFlamme hopes that the drivers who took part in the crash will be caught and that people will stop illegal racing. “It’s dangerous. People die all the time. They were just saying how many people have died from doing this,” she said.
Russ Patten said that his brother was very easygoing and kindhearted. He described him as a “neat freak” who washed his car daily and never missed a chance to photograph cars at an event.
Daniel Patten’s memorial will be held on Wednesday, January the 6th, by his close friends and loved ones. They planned a cruise through Huntington Beach. The Surf City Classics car club will give out more details about the event on social media.
This is currently an open Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department open investigation. DRE expresses their condolences to the family of Daniel Patten.
One of these bullets struck William in his eye. Instantly his eye socket was shattered, his tear duct was torn apart and his eyeball exploded from the force.
Despite the name, “non-lethal projectile”, these foam bullets are in fact still projectiles traveling at high speeds and impacts can cause massive damage. William’s brother came to his aid, using a Kobe Bryant jersey to try to stop the bleeding.
Even in his injured state, William was forced to flee further because the police were still firing on the crowd. They ran to a line of officers to try to get help and were initially pushed back, until they were finally allowed to get to an ambulance. William had to wait at least 30 minutes with his eye in this condition before he was allowed to be transported to a hospital for care.
Despite the LAPD’s insistence that these projectiles can’t penetrate the skin and that their officers are trained not to take head shots, William sustained these massive injuries and another person in the crowd lost 8 teeth when they took a projectile to the mouth.
Based on this case and other incidents over the last year with riots and protests, legislature and activists are now taking a serious look into the injuries that actually come from these Non-Lethal Projectiles.
Take a look at the following video from Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters talking about Non-Lethal or Less Lethal projectiles and demonstrating the types of damage they can do. If you want to see the test shots, go to about 4:00 in the video where Jamie is shooting small tennis balls and they penetrate a hanging blanket. The Foam 40mm bullets used by the police still traveling at around 100 mph!
Police policy is to aim the weapons around the middle of a person, near their waist, and only firing at individuals who are a threat to the police.
Video evidence is now suggesting that officers don’t actually comply with this training, firing into crowds of people, potentially hitting an innocent individual and wounding or disabling them.
Police are being defensive, stating that video footage and even their own body cam footage doesn’t capture all the events leading up to an incident.
Gonzalez is currently being aided in his lawsuit against the police by attorneys at DRE, A.P.C. It is a tragedy and horrific that he had to experience this on a night that should have been a night of celebration and victory. We hope that the use of Non-lethal projectiles will be further investigated and further laws and restrictions passed to prevent other innocent people from being needlesly injured by police.
For more information on this case, please contact DRE, A.P.C. at (213) 296-5838. This case is currently active as of the publishing date of this article.
Here are some news articles about William’s case and the events surrounding the NBA Title Game: