Teenager Dies When Backyard Hoop Falls

A preliminary autopsy on a Costa Mesa teenager who died after a basketball hoop fell on him during a backyard game could not determine the exact cause of his death, a coroner’s spokesman said Tuesday.

“We didn’t find anything obvious at this point,” said Larry Esslinger, a supervising deputy Orange County coroner. “We hope to have more results in a few weeks.”

Jose Nieto, 17, was playing basketball with friends at his home in the 600 block of Surf Street about 3 p.m. Monday when the hoop, mounted on the roof, came down.

“I don’t know if he was trying to dunk or what,” said Lt. Dale Birney, a spokesman for the Costa Mesa Police Dept. “But he grabbed onto the rim of the basket, and the whole unit dislodged from the roof and came down on top of him. He went to the ground and hit his head.”

After the accident, Nieto got up and kept playing for a while before going into the house and falling asleep in his bed, Birney said. About three hours later, his friends tried to rouse him and couldn’t, the officer said, so they called paramedics.

Nieto, a house painter whose parents live in Mexico, was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, where he was pronounced dead later that evening.

“It was a tragic accident, pure and simple,” Birney said Tuesday. “It was very unusual, just one of those things that happen.”