"A Random Street Death Becomes Vivid And Real" by Daniel Guss
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Dozens of people gathered in a Sherman Oaks alley on Sunday morning to comfort one another, light candles and say prayers by the memorial they built for a handsome young man with a broad smile and clear, engaging eyes who lost his life there last week.
His name was David Isaac Soto-Toral, and this was him celebrating Christmas with his family just a month earlier.
A diehard Celtics fan, David, 35, would have been thrilled to watch his team’s Saturday overtime win over the Lakers, his big extended family told me.
“David was a kind, spirited man,” his mom, Sara Toral, and her partner Dolores, affectionately known as David’s other mother, told me, as echoed by a stream of mourning loved ones including his sister, grandfather, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and friends, including his former girlfriends. “He was an avid skateboarder, Celtics fan and dog-lover. But more than anything, he was a warm, kind soul.”
For some of the locals, including myself, who were stunned by death on our doorsteps the prior Wednesday morning, what had been just another gray, random tragedy, suddenly became vivid and real as we trickled out to hug them, chat and learn how much David meant to them, and what they had discovered about the circumstances that ended his life.
We were surprised to find out that David was not the homeless and addicted person who we all suspected had died, to whom David had a striking resemblance.
David had struggled with addiction for several years, but he was not homeless. In fact, to see his recent photos, you would think everything was going his way, and many things were. But like so many photos posted on social media, images don’t fully reflect reality.
UPDATE FEB 2, 6:30pm: In the early morning hours on January 25th, David was seen by local residents meandering on Burbank Boulevard before eventually finding his way to a nearby close-ended alley. There, according to at least one other resident driving out of the alley around 11am, David was seen sitting upright near the open-end of the alley, Indian style, but with his legs not fully crossed, possibly listening to music with headphones or ear buds. According to the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner, David was alive when a Los Angeles City Sanitation Department garbage truck entered the alley and ran over him, ending his life, pronounced deceased at 11:50am. His possibly listening to music may explain why he didn’t hear the truck. If it can be independently verified that David was both awake and somewhat visible at the time of the tragic accident, it could make the culpability and liability significantly more substantial. (I am presently tracking-down others who may be able to independently corroborate whether David was sitting in this manner as late as 11:27am.)
First responders left David’s possessions, and their black rubber gloves, strewn about at the scene after his body had been removed even though their investigation continues. Sara says that the LAPD wouldn’t even tell her where in the football field-long alley her son was killed so she and her family could set-up his memorial. She found out from those of us who spent some time with them on Sunday. As of yesterday, neither Mayor Karen Bass nor the area’s City Councilmember Nithya Raman had reached out to Sara to express their condolences.
This comes as no surprise, as Raman has been non-responsive to multiple inquiries about a slew of recent local street deaths, whether those who pass are addicts, homeless or both. So to advance Sara’s hope to find help for people living on the margins, let’s jumpstart that effort by publicly bringing one such situation to the local lawmaker’s attention.
Nithya, a number of people in your district have told me that there is one particularly ailing woman living on the streets of your district named Maria who they think may be the next to die. In fact, she is on the very same spot where someone else lost their life a few weeks ago. You read this column, so please reach out, or at least have the courtesy of having your staff do so, so that Maria doesn’t wind up as David did.
I’d send photos, Councilmember, except that back on September 1st, a member of your staff emailed a concerned constituent with a complaint of her own: that the photo he sent you was too graphic: “In future, we request that you do not send these types of photos to our staff as we will not be able to respond if they contain inappropriate content, such as a person indecently exposed. While it is not right that you and your customers were confronted with this - it is also crossing a boundary to send these photos to our staff unsolicited.”
In other words, even though we’re dealing with deadly and difficult circumstances, don’t spoil your day with it. But that’s the nature of your jobs. If the graphic reality of them is too much to handle, and if it is too uncomfortable to express condolences to the family of someone killed by a city vehicle, there are other lines of work you should consider.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for Mayor Sam and has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)