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View Full Version : South Bay local involved in Boating accident



Parker Dreamin
10-19-2006, 06:34 AM
This was in today Daily Breeze.
A former Harbor Area football standout who had recently graduated from college near the top of his class was killed earlier this month in a boating accident.
Daniel Burkett III fell from a speed boat and was hit by its propeller during a vacation with friends at Lake Oroville in Northern California. His close friend was driving the boat and has been charged with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in connection with his death.
Burkett was 22 years old. He had recently moved back to the South Bay to begin his career with Raytheon Co. after graduating with highest honors from the University of San Diego.
Burkett played football for Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro, winning all-league and all-division honors as an offensive lineman in 2000 and 2001. The Daily Breeze named him to its All-Area team as a senior in 2001.
The high school's faculty also singled out Burkett as one of the Gold Medal students of his graduating class. The school gives the award each year to the one boy and the one girl who best represent its mission.
"I know everybody loved him, a lot," said the Rev. Nicholas Tacito, the school's rector.
Burkett died the evening of Oct. 6.
He had been kneeling in the front of a motorboat towing a wakeboarder across Lake Oroville, said Chris Carlos, the deputy district attorney of Butte County. When the wakeboarder fell, the driver of the boat suddenly cut the throttle and began to turn to pick him up, Carlos said.
Burkett lost his balance and pitched forward into the water, Carlos said. He was run over by the boat and died soon afterward.
Investigators are still awaiting the results of blood tests taken after the accident. But Carlos said an initial Breathalyzer test indicated that the boat driver, Steven Ettlin, 22, of San Juan Capistrano, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.1.
California boating law, like the motor vehicle law, makes it illegal to drive at 0.08. Ettlin faces manslaughter charges under both the state Penal Code and the Harbor and Navigation Code; Carlos said he remains free on bail.
The case "is still being investigated," said Denise Reichenberg, the supervising state park ranger at Lake Oroville. "It's a very serious situation."
Ettlin could not be reached for comment.
Attempts to reach Burkett's friends, family and former teammates also were unsuccessful.
Burkett is survived by his father, Daniel L. Burkett II; his mother, Elizabeth C. Burkett; a sister, Jacquelyn Burkett; and his grandparents, William Nelson Jr. and Cristina Juan Nelson.
Rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Friday at McNerney's Mortuary, San Pedro. Funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon Saturday at Mary Star of Sea Catholic Church, San Pedro.
Find this article at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/4433702.html