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A man accused of running over and stabbing to death a California doctor who was bicycling on the Pacific Coast Highway described himself as “mixed race” in a series of lengthy posts on social media, criticizing the ‘grudges, malice, separation, hate’.
Dr. Michael Mammone, a 58-year-old emergency room physician at Providence Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach, was killed Wednesday.
Vanroy Evan Smith, 39, a Long Beach accountant, appeared in court Friday charged with murder.
Prosecutors allege that Smith ran a red light around 3 p.m. and struck Mammone. He then got out of his white Lexus and approached the doctor, pulled out a knife and stabbed him to death.
Vanroy Smith, left, has been charged with murder after Dr. Michael Mammone, right, was knocked off his bike Wednesday and killed.
Aerial images show where the white Lexus collided with the cyclist and remained parked a few hundred yards away.
He was holding a BB gun when he approached Mammone, a married father of two, and was yelling racial slurs about “white privilege,” according to ABC7.
Smith was held back by bystanders until sheriffs arrived and arrested him.
“An innocent man is dead because he took a bike ride to enjoy a beautiful California day along the beach and was struck by a car and stabbed to death by someone he apparently never knew,” said Todd Spitzer, California’s prosecutor. Orange County district.
“The murder of a complete stranger in broad daylight for what seems to be no reason is the stuff of nightmares.”
On Facebook, Smith wrote about being mixed race and posted lengthy musings on ethnicity and religion.
“I was born black and white, then I was lucky to grow up the first 12 years with my black family, and the next 6 with white,” he wrote.
I am half-breed and races seem insignificant to me.
Smith criticized the “grudges, the malice, the separation, the hatred” that he felt were directed at people because of their race, noting, “It really holds you back.”
Smith appeared in court chained to several deputies and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
He continued, in a misspelled rule: ‘Why can’t we see that all this is temporary? We all wither and die.
‘Were you born with an appearance that people call ugly or misshapen? Okay, you will build character, and then you will go somewhere else, where I think there will be no such limitations, if you go to the right place.
‘Similarly, are you considered beautiful or shapely? Be thankful, not proud. Did you make yourself, and how long will you be like this, does that time even appear on a scale of eternity?’
In another post, in October 2020, Smith wrote: “Current thinking: black VS dark and white VS light.”
He reflected on the meaning given to the colors black and white, and said that it had an impact on people’s attitudes.
“By appearance and established standards, I am called a black man,” he wrote.
‘Does that mean I deny and reject half of my ancestry? How do we tell someone to filter things like that out of his blood?
‘All things considered, we really need to change our thinking.’
Dr. Mammone’s destroyed bike can be seen at the corner of the intersection after it was thrown into the air.
The shocking video shows the moment Smith, a trained accountant, collided with the cyclist, with police claiming the two were complete strangers.
Despite witnesses claiming to have seen a weapon of some kind, officials have not confirmed whether any firearms were recovered from the scene.
Smith, a father of two, remains in custody at the Intake Release Center in Orange County.
Mammone has worked as an ER physician at Providence Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach since 2011 and graduated from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in 1993.
He also occasionally worked in Mission Viejo and at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Santa Ana.
The hospital said in a statement: ‘We are stunned by this devastating tragedy. The entire Mission Hospital family is grieving the loss of an incredible physician and friend.
“We will honor Dr. Mammone’s dedication to our community and his passion for medicine by continuing to provide exceptional care.”
He leaves behind his wife Julie, a nurse at the same hospital, and two sons, Nick and Jon.
Cardiologist Dawn Aatwal said: ‘That’s the irony of all this. If they brought a patient in her condition, she would have done everything she could to save that person.
She added: “He has saved so many lives here, and he died very close to where he saved hundreds of lives.”