Graffiti Suspect Hurt in Fall Undergoes Surgery

A 19-year-old Woodland Hills man, whose spine was broken when he jumped off a freeway overpass where he was allegedly painting graffiti, underwent more than six hours of surgery Thursday for his injuries, a hospital spokesman said.

Doctors who treated Daniel Supple at UCLA Medical Center said they could not comment on the extent of the injuries, which also include a broken left arm and two broken ankles, until he begins to recover from his surgery, hospital spokesman Warren Robak said.

Supple was in fair condition, Robak said.

According to CHP officials, Supple was spray-painting his “tag,” or graffiti name, early Wednesday on the Skirball Center overpass above the San Diego Freeway when he became stranded and jumped about 100 feet from the top of a concrete pylon onto an embankment.

Supple, who CHP investigators say has caused at least $68,000 in graffiti damage to Caltrans property, was arrested by CHP officers at the hospital on suspicion of felony vandalism. He will be taken into custody when he is released from the hospital, said Officer Armando Perdomo, a spokesman for the CHP’s Southern Division graffiti task force.

An arraignment date has not yet been set.

CHP investigators are searching for a possible unidentified accomplice who may have helped Supple get onto the pylon, Perdomo said.

Supple was arrested as a juvenile in January 1996 on suspicion of graffiti vandalism by the Los Angeles Police Department but was not convicted, Perdomo said.