Community mourns death of 14-year-old boy

Hundreds of notes, candles, flowers and pictures plastered the intersection where 14-year-old Danny Oates was killed on his bicycle Wednesday afternoon. On sheets of paper covering the wall smashed through by the pickup truck that took Oates’ life, a whole community spoke to Oates and his family.

Friends told Danny how much he had meant to them; neighbors expressed sympathy to the Oates family; even complete strangers offered prayers and advice in permanent marker. Large signs told all visitors that a sunset memorial would be held in LeBard Park at 7 p.m. Thursday.

A cluster of Oates’ former classmates pulled up on their own bikes to visit the scene, scribbling friendly messages to their friend. They remembered him as an athlete – a third-baseman on the school baseball team, and a strong midfielder in soccer. Pacing out the skidmarks in the intersection and chattering uneasily, they seemed to struggle to come to grips with what had happened so suddenly.

For neighborhood teens who use bicycles as a main form of transportation, the death hit home, Miguel Berenguel said.

“It’s really scary,” he said. “Pretty much every day we ride our bikes past here. This is how we get to school.”

Oates was riding a bicycle east on Indianapolis Avenue in the bike lane at 2:10 p.m. Wednesday when he was fatally struck, police said. A Ford F-150 truck driving the other way swerved or turned across the road at Everglades Lane and hit Oates, then it smashed through a palm tree and a cinder-block wall, coming to rest in the backyard of a home.

The two teens were headed toward Isaac L. Sowers Middle School on the day students were expected to pick up their class schedules. Oates would have begun eighth grade next week.

Injured 20-year-old driver Jeffrey Francis Woods was rushed to Western Medical Center-Anaheim and is being treated for his injuries, police said. The crash did not appear to be alcohol-related, but a full investigation is ongoing and final toxicology results will take weeks, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Dave Bunetta. Police did not yet have an estimate of the truck’s speed.

Oates was laid-back with a sense of humor, his former classmate Tyler Bigenho said.

“Yeah he was a funny guy,” Tyler said. “His dad was always like that too. I can’t believe he has to live with that now.”