Family mourns former Napster executive hit by sheriff’s patrol car

Family and friends on Monday mourned the death of Milton Olin Jr., the former Napster executive who was struck and killed by a sheriff’s patrol car in Calabasas.

Olin was killed Sunday afternoon as he was riding his bicycle on Mulholland Highway.

“We’re devastated,” his son Christopher Olin, 29, said in a short phone interview. “He was the most generous person with his time and counsel.”

“There’s a lot of people he left behind,” he added.

Christopher Olin said he and his brother would often ride their bicycles with their father.

“It was something we liked to do together,” he said with a heavy sigh. “He loved it even when we weren’t available to ride.”

The accident occurred shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday in the 22000 block of Mulholland Highway, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Video footage taken at the scene showed cycling shoes on the road and on the grass near the sidewalk where Milton Olin Jr., a prominent entertainment attorney, appeared to have been hit by the car. The impact left a huge crack on the windshield.

Christopher Olin said his father was on a stretch of the road that was part of a route he took from his Woodland Hills home.

“If you would have asked me last week what the safest part was, it would have been that stretch of the road,” he said.

Milton Olin Jr. was pronounced dead at the scene, and the deputy was taken to a hospital for minor injuries that included glass to the eyes and cuts, authorities said.

Some in the cycling community were stunned that the incident involved a law enforcement officer.

“I’m perplexed at the moment,” said Colin Bogart, education director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. “What was going on?”

Since late 2010, Ted Rogers has been keeping track of such fatalities on his website BikinginLA. On Monday, readers were commenting about Olin’s death.

“There seems to be anger that it was a police officer that killed this man,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he has documented at least three other fatal accidents in the area where Olin died. Some of those were solo and vehicle accidents.

He said Olin’s death is the latest in what he describes as a horrible year for bicycling. He said there has been an increase in the number of deaths involving cyclists in Los Angeles County.

Christopher Olin said some in the cycling community have expressed concern to him about whether detectives will conduct a fair investigation.

“I can’t seem to agree with that, but it will be interesting to see what comes out of the investigation,” Rogers said.

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