Aaron Avery worked just two days as a security guard at SoFi Stadium before a suspected drunk driver ended his life. The 22-year-old was walking home after the Iran vs. New Zealand FIFA World Cup match on June 15 when a vehicle struck him near Van Ness Avenue and 104th Street, only a few blocks from his front door, shortly after 10:30 p.m., the New York Post reported.
Avery was rushed to the hospital in critical condition with a traumatic brain injury. Doctors placed him on life support. He was pronounced dead the following day.
His family says the driver was speeding and intoxicated. The driver, whose name has not been publicly released, was arrested. No specific charges have been disclosed, and no law enforcement agency has been identified by name in connection with the case. What the family does know is that a young man who took pride in his new job, and who was walking home the way working people do, never made it back.
A body dragged half a block
Breitbart reported that Avery's body was dragged for half a block by the vehicle after impact. That detail alone speaks to the force and recklessness involved. The collision happened at night, on streets near one of the country's highest-profile sports venues during a global event that draws tens of thousands of fans and workers into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Avery's aunt, Norma Quinn, told CBS News the family is shattered.
"I'm crushed because this was the last thing we would have ever thought would happen. He was just so young... to know that he had to endure that."
Quinn also described what the family had been told about the circumstances of the crash.
"From what I was told, it was a strong possibility that speed played a part in it, and the guy was under the influence."
The driver, for his part, reportedly claimed he could not see Avery because it was nighttime and Avery was wearing all black. That explanation did not sit well with Avery's sister, Monique Yates.
"You say you didn't see my brother walking because he had on all black. It don't matter what color he had on. That can't be an excuse on why you hit somebody."
She's right. If you're behind the wheel, sober or not, the responsibility to see what's in front of you doesn't vanish because a pedestrian isn't wearing reflective gear. And if the driver was intoxicated, the clothing argument is worse than hollow. It's an attempt to shift blame from the person who chose to drive impaired onto the person who chose to walk home from work.
Two days on the job
Avery had only been working at SoFi Stadium for two days. His involvement with the World Cup was, by the family's account, a source of genuine pride. The GoFundMe page set up on the family's behalf described him as "a caring and dedicated son who loved helping his community." His role as a security guard at a FIFA event was something he and his family were proud of.
Now his family faces medical bills, end-of-life expenses, and funeral costs. The GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $5,000 at the time of reporting, a modest sum against the weight of what they're dealing with. Incidents like this one, where a working person is struck down by an allegedly reckless driver in a fatal crash, leave families scrambling for both answers and financial survival.
Quinn put it plainly: "He was my sister's baby. It's very devastating."
Organ donation: saving lives after losing one
Even in death, Avery's family made a decision that reflected the character they say he had. Avery donated his heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. ABC 7 reported that his organ donations could potentially save up to eight lives.
That is the kind of detail that deserves to sit with readers for a moment. A 22-year-old man, two days into a new job, is struck and dragged by a vehicle driven by someone the family says was drunk. And his family, in the middle of that grief, chose to give other families a chance his own will never get back.
The contrast between the driver's alleged conduct and the family's response could not be sharper.
Unanswered questions
Several basic facts remain publicly unknown. The driver's identity has not been released. The specific charges, if any have been filed, have not been disclosed. No law enforcement agency has been named in connection with the arrest or investigation. Whether toxicology results have confirmed the family's allegation of intoxication is unclear. Even the precise location details, whether Avery was on a sidewalk, in a crosswalk, or walking along the road, have not been made public.
These are not minor gaps. They are the kinds of details that determine whether the legal system treats this as a tragic accident or as a serious crime. DUI-related fatalities are not new in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country. But the context here, a young worker walking home from a World Cup match at one of America's premier stadiums, puts a spotlight on how vulnerable ordinary people are when impaired drivers face too little deterrence.
Violent and reckless acts against everyday people going about their lives have become a grim pattern in American cities. Whether it's a mass stabbing at a transit hub or a pedestrian struck by a suspected drunk driver near a stadium, the common thread is the same: people minding their own business, destroyed by someone else's choices.
The World Cup's shadow
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a massive event, spread across multiple host cities in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles is one of the marquee venues. Tens of thousands of fans flood in and out of the area on match days. The infrastructure required to manage that, security, traffic, transit, crowd control, is enormous.
But the workers who make those events possible don't all leave in chartered buses or ride-shares. Some of them walk. Aaron Avery walked. And the question that lingers is whether anyone in the chain of event planning, traffic management, or law enforcement gave adequate thought to the safety of workers leaving the stadium on foot, at night, on streets shared with drivers who may have been drinking at or around the event.
That question is not rhetorical. It has real policy implications. When cities bid for and host global sporting events, they accept responsibility for the safety of everyone involved, not just the fans in the stands, but the workers who park the cars, check the bags, and stand post at the gates. The death of a young person in circumstances that should have been preventable raises hard questions about whether that responsibility was met.
Justice still pending
Quinn said what any family member would say: "I just hope my nephew gets justice." Whether he gets it depends on prosecutors, on the completeness of the investigation, and on whether the legal system treats a suspected DUI fatality with the seriousness it deserves.
Too often, impaired driving cases end with plea deals, reduced charges, and sentences that amount to a slap on the wrist, especially in jurisdictions where progressive prosecutors have made leniency a governing philosophy. The family has every reason to worry. Cases involving violent deaths and grieving families demand accountability, not procedural shortcuts.
Aaron Avery was 22. He had a new job, a family that loved him, and a walk home that should have been uneventful. He never made it. The least the system owes his family is a prosecution that matches the gravity of what was taken from them.
A man who can't see a pedestrian has no business behind a wheel. A system that can't hold him accountable has no business calling itself just.
