INGLEWOOD – A man’s drowning death during a rave held February at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium was ruled accidental despite psychedelic drugs being present in his system.
The County released the autopsy report under a Public Records Request which details that 19-year-old Mirai Ashley Shepard died from an accidental drowning but the Toxicology Report indicated he had quantities of LSD in his system that according to his friends “was consumed during the electronic dance music concert featuring DJ Illenium.
Electronic dance music concerts are commonly referred to as raves.
In 2016, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors were contemplating banning raves due to the amount of overdoses that occurred during them in previous years.
Two teens who attended the HARD Summer Music Festival in 2015 overdosed and prior to that, a 15-year-old girl died of an overdose in 2010 after collapsing at a rave at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, sparking debate about whether concerts should be allowed. There has not been a rave at the Coliseum since 2011.
Instead of moving forward with an outright ban, the BOS approved an ordinance that allows case-by-case consideration of “mass gathering events” expected to draw 10,000 people or more on county property or in unincorporated areas.
Inglewood operates as its own fiefdom under the commanding presence of Mayor James Butts Jr. so raves are welcome.
When Javier Bautista-Reyes drowned in the lake on July 6, 2022, it was Mayor Butts who was dispatched to the public to speak on the chain of events that led to his death.
“They have plenty of surveillance and basically what they saw was the gentleman entering from the Century side of the property and migrating his way towards the lake. Hopping a fence to get in that area, getting into the lake, and moving out to the middle of it,” said the mayor.
Bautista-Reyes autopsy report only indicates he was seen “walking from a theatre at the stadium…across a roadway…and towards a large lake…”
At the time the only operable theatre on the campus was YouTube Theatre.
The mayor admitted to never seeing the video and added it wouldn’t be released to the public.
Under the same Public Records Request, County officials released Bautista-Reyes’ autopsy report indicated he had no drugs in his system, however, the report denoted that “the manmade lake is approx. 5 acres with an unobstructed bottom that descends downward 12-15 feet deep and contains multiple waterfalls run by pumps that were not on at the time of his death.”
The similarities between the deaths of Bautista-Reyes and Shepard were security officers watching the men enter the lake and doing nothing to prevent it.
Shepard’s report states, “…at 21:30 hours a security guard saw the decedent exiting the water, got about 10 feet away from the decedent, who ran away and then jumped back in the water…[unknown] officers saw decedent floating near the ledge…bobbed up and down 3-4 times…back paddling for about 15 seconds, went underwater and never emerged….”
Shepard wasn’t found by the dive team until 22:57 hours.
The autopsy report indicates the two Inglewood Fire Stations on Crenshaw Blvd. responded to the scene which are the closest to the Hollywood Park campus.
According to the National Fire Protection Association the Hollywood Park campus needs a stand alone on-site location to have emergency personnel on hand to meet the demand of the call volume.
Each fire station is routinely staffed with less than 10 employees per shift.
“The City refuses to put in emergency vehicle lanes on either Pincay or Prairie so fire trucks can respond to calls or so ambulances can get to Centinela [Hospital] but they won’t because it ruins the flow of traffic for the parking lots,” according to City sources who requested anonymity as to not be retaliated against.
“Once Intuit [Dome] opens the City is going to be in trouble. You’re gonna have more people in the City than they can handle and something bad is going to happen and it’s gonna be pure chaos.”