Forum owner of evolutionm.net dies in crash...

http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.ph...07&page=1&pp=15

 

 

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Irvine man killed in Las Vegas crash

Web site friends post memories of Mark Modaressi.

 

By SONYA SMITH

The Orange County Register

 

 

 

 

CHAOTIC SCENE: Police say the driver who hit pedestrians Wednesday on the Las Vegas Strip acted intentionally.

 

 

IRVINE – Mark Modaressi, 26, of Irvine, died Thursday after he and 11 other pedestrians were struck by a car in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

 

 

Stephen M. Ressa, 27, of Rialto, is accused of deliberately crashing into a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, killing Modaressi and Gordon Kusayanagi, 52, of Hollister. A dozen people were struck in the crash in front of the Bally's and Paris hotel-casinos. Six remained hospitalized Thursday.

 

Modaressi died at 11:05 a.m. Thursday at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. Kusayanagi died Wednesday.

 

Today friends remembered the Irvine man on a Web site devoted to Lancer cars that Modaressi created in 2001.

 

Ralph, a poster whose last name is not given on the site, wrote that he was Modaressi's neighbor and close friend, and was with him in Las Vegas prior to the crash. In announcing the death, he said the group of friends was unwinding in Las Vegas over the week and that on Wednesday afternoon, Modaressi was walking with three others when they were struck on the sidewalk. Ralph said the three escaped with bumps, bruises and scrapes but Modaressi suffered severe head trauma. Ralph also posted that Modaressi will be buried in the Maryland-Washington, D.C., area where he grew up.

 

Another member on the site known as "ez76" from the San Francisco area wrote that if it had not been for Modaressi, he never would have met and made friends with people on the Web site.

 

"Because of Mark's efforts, more than 30,000 people are able to come here every day, meet, talk about their cars and their lives," ez76 wrote. "He will be remembered because his efforts are now a part of all of our lives."

 

Rialto police Detective Sgt. Reinhard Burkholder said Ressa was wanted for questioning in a near-fatal assault on his 54-year-old mother just days before the crash.

 

"He punched her numerous times in the face and choked her into unconsciousness, and stood over her with a butcher knife," Burkholder said. Ressa has not been charged in that case.

 

He faces charges of murder and attempted murder in Wednesday's crash. He was arrested at the scene and is being held without bail.

 

One witness described seeing "humans being mowed down like a lawnmower," Las Vegas deputy police chief Greg McCurdy said Thursday. "It appears he did this intentionally."

 

There was no record that Ressa had retained a lawyer.

 

During interviews with detectives, Ressa appeared lucid and correctly answered questions about his ability to determine right and wrong, McCurdy said. But Ressa's statements were "bizarre in nature," McCurdy said.

 

Results of alcohol and drug tests are pending

Thats terribly sad...RIP.

terrible. sorry to hear.