Alleged Tagger Falls 100 Feet

A suspected tagger stranded high above the San Diego Freeway after allegedly painting “OZIE” in huge letters on the side of an overpass plunged 100 feet to an embankment early Wednesday, fracturing his spine, the California Highway Patrol said.

Daniel Supple, 19, of Woodland Hills was found by CHP officers in a bushy area near the Skirball Center Drive exit about 5:45 a.m., said Officer Karen Faciane, a CHP spokeswoman. Officers said they believe he had become stranded on the top of a concrete pylon that supports the bridge.

Supple was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he was in fair condition late Wednesday. Doctors at the hospital would not comment on the extent of his spinal injuries, but he was scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday night for two broken ankles and a broken left arm, according to hospital spokeswoman Ruthie Marek.

At the hospital, Supple was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, a CHP official said.

Investigators said Supple probably got to the pylon by climbing over a bridge railing with the help of an accomplice. But after allegedly spray-painting his tag, “he saw no way down so he opted to jump,” said Faciane.

“I don’t know what could be so important that he had to go up there,” she said, “but then again, I’m not 19.”

The word “OZIE,” which could be easily seen from the freeway, was painted in three-dimensional black and white letters, framed by red flames.

Also part of the design was a second, smaller “OZIE YR 97” and a red “78” inside a heart. Supple was born in 1978.

Law enforcement officials said they believe Supple has left his spray-painted calling card in numerous locations over the last year and a half, causing at least $68,000 in damage to Caltrans property, according to Officer Armando Perdomo, a spokesman for a CHP graffiti task force.

Supple had been arrested on graffiti vandalism charges as a juvenile, according to Los Angeles police officials, but not convicted.

The suspect graduated from Stoneridge Preparatory School in Tarzana last year. He had transferred from Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, where one of his classmates was Kevin O’Shaughnessy.

O’Shaughnessy, now 18 and still a close friend of the suspect, said Supple is intelligent and was an outgoing athlete.

“He did things like BMX biking because it was a thrill, but he is very level-headed, always thinking,” said O’Shaughnessy. “He had a lot going on. He thought a lot about everything.”

O’Shaughnessy said Supple had a longtime interest in drawing and was often seen sketching human and animal figures. Supple was also interested in stylized lettering, he said, a characteristic of graffiti.

Stoneridge director Maria Arnold said Supple was a smart and energetic youth who was on the basketball team and loved “art, especially fancy lettering with colorful pictures--they didn’t look like the kinds of graffiti you usually see.”

Arnold said she took a liking to Supple, even though “he wasn’t an angel,” because he was “always lovely, polite and full of life.”

She said often when she went to school basketball games, “he would say, ‘This basket is for you, Mrs. Arnold!’ and he would make it. That was the kind of kid he was.”

The only trouble Arnold can remember Supple getting into was before his graduation, when he and his friends draped toilet paper all over the school. “I caught them and they cleaned it up right away,” she said. “Like most young people, he did things that may not be appropriate, but T.P.-ing the school, that was just a joke.”

Supple attended Santa Monica City College after graduating from Stoneridge but left and got a job as a driver for a car messenger service, O’Shaughnessy said. Supple had been unemployed in recent months, his friend said.

“I saw him two weeks ago, and he was telling me he was finally starting to get his life situated,” O’Shaughnessy said. “He just had regular kid problems, like not knowing who he was.”

LAPD Det. Craig Rhudy said all freeway bridges and signs--particularly along the San Diego Freeway in West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley--are popular sites for taggers because of their visibility.

“Higher places allow more people to see it, which means more recognition and notoriety,” Rhudy said. “It also stays up there for a longer time because it’s harder for the people who paint over it to get to.”

When O’Shaughnessy was asked why he thought his friend took the risk of climbing onto a freeway pylon, he said, “I think because he enjoys the thrill, and for the art aspect. It was like a roller coaster.”