Well-Liked Man’s Stadium Fall an Apparent Accident

The fatal fall of a Santa Ana man from an upper ramp at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday night was an “unfortunate, isolated incident” but does not point up a need to upgrade security, the stadium’s general manager, Greg Smith, said Thursday.

Sean Laurence O’Neill, 19, died after falling from an exterior ramp during the sixth inning of a game between the California Angels and the Chicago White Sox.

The death appears to have been accidental, Ted Sullivan, an Orange County deputy coroner handling the case, said Thursday. Given the evidence, suicide has been ruled out, he said.

“He had everything to live for,” Sullivan said. “He had nice parents. He had gainful employment. There was no note.”

Anaheim police said Thursday that they still were not certain whether O’Neill fell from the 40-foot-high club-level ramp or from the uppermost view-level ramp, which is 60 feet high.

Whichever ramp it was, O’Neill would have had to have climbed over a 5-foot-high concrete security wall to be in a position to fall over the side, Smith said.

The fall occurred behind Gate 5 outside the northwestern corner of the stadium. O’Neill fell onto a flat roof and then onto the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Smith said that Anaheim Stadium, with from 150 to 275 security personnel assigned to each baseball game, has more than adequate security. The number of security personnel depends on the size of the crowd and the rivalry between teams.

Uniformed security guards are posted at each ramp-level entrance, with instructions to keep an eye out for anything unusual, Smith said.

But Smith said the guards may not have spotted O’Neill climbing onto the wall because they were busy ushering other people.

Smith said people climbing onto the security walls had never been a problem at the stadium. In fact, O’Neill’s fatal fall was the first in the 22-year history of the stadium. For that reason, Smith said he saw no reason Thursday to change security procedures in the wake of this incident.

“This is just an unfortunate tragedy that no one likes to see happen anywhere,” Smith said.

O’Neill’s family, gathered in mourning Thursday at their West Wisteria Place home, declined comment.

But friends and acquaintances painted a portrait of a quiet loner who was well liked.

“He was a very polite, courteous boy,” said Elizabeth Logan, his high school music teacher. “He was just a man of few words.”

O’Neill attended Los Amigos High School in Fountain Valley and then transferred in his senior year to Claremont High in Garden Grove. Donna Connelly, director of Claremont High, said O’Neill transferred to Claremont after he started failing classes at Los Amigos. At Claremont, she said, he boosted his grade-point level to honor-roll status.

O’Neill was the youngest of three brothers and a sister. In the months since graduation, he had lived at home with his parents and worked as a deliveryman for an electronics firm, coroner’s officials said.

He was most interested in learning to play the guitar, heavy-metal rock style, said Marlene Black, 25, a next-door neighbor and lifelong friend.

Black said O’Neill was “really good” with the guitar and had taken lessons from her husband, Tony, until they divorced and he had moved to Texas a few months ago. She said O’Neill had been planning a trip soon to Texas to visit her ex-husband.

He was also ready with a helping hand for others. Just Monday, said neighbor Mary McKinney, O’Neill offered to help jump-start one of her friend’s stalled car.

“He was in a good mood,” she said.

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this report.