Trevor Heitmann, an 18-year-old YouTube video gamer known by the handle “McSkillet,” died Friday after the car he was driving collided with another vehicle on interstate 805 in north San Diego. A 43-year-old woman and 12-year-old girl died in the collision. According to the San Diego Medical Examiner’s office, Heitmann was driving his car south “at an accelerated speed” in the northbound HOV lane. He “collided head-on” with a northbound SUV, killing himself as well as the driver and passenger in the SUV. Representatives for the San Diego Medical Examiner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap. The Los Angeles Times reports that Heitman was driving at least 100 mph. The collision caused nearly a dozen other vehicles to crash, resulting in debris scattered across the highway and “multiple vehicles on fire,” according to the Times. A fourth person was also reported seriously injured, but is expected to survive. Also Read: Google Bans Dozens of Iran-Tied YouTube Channels Heitman’s YouTube channel primarily featured videos related to the video game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.” As of this writing, Heitman’s channel had more than 878,000 subscribers. Heitmann primarily made a living through so-called “skin gambling,” the use of virtual items unconnected to gameplay, like alterations to character appearance (“skins”), as currency to bet on the outcomes of professional games. Valve, publisher of Counter-Strike, has been attempting to discourage the practice, and it banned Heitman in June from trading items. According to some estimates, the ban might have cost him as much as $100,000.<doc-sep>The 18-year-old who sped the wrong way down Interstate 805 Thursday, crashing into a SUV and killing himself, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, was a YouTube star who had made a small fortune in video gaming gambling, according to authorities and hundreds of gaming fans on Twitter. The California Highway Patrol identified him Friday as Trevor Heitmann of San Diego. But the nearly 900,000 subscribers to his YouTube video channel and his Twitter followers knew him as “McSkillet.” Various tweets by gaming fans said he had been banned from facilitating e-sport gambling that had brought him a sizable income — enough to buy a handmade, 2015 British McLaren 650S sports car that would have cost $250,000 or more. Advertisement The McLaren, with Heitmann behind the wheel, slammed head-on into a Hyundai SUV and both vehicles burst into flames. Those who died in the SUV were tentatively identified by the county Medical Examiner’s Office as a 43-year-old San Diego woman and her 12-year-old daughter. The woman’s son identified them as Aileen Pizarro and her daughter Aryana Pizarro. They lived in the College Area. Aileen Pizzaro was a marriage and family counselor working toward her license, and her daughter was set to start seventh grade on Monday, Dominic Pizarro said. Undated photo of Aileen Pizarro and her daughter Aryana Pizarro. They were killed in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 805 Wednesday. (Photo courtesy of LeRoy Phillips Jr.) Heitman was headed south in northbound HOV lanes of I-805 near Sorrento Valley about 4:40 p.m. Thursday when he rammed the on-coming SUV. Other cars hit the flaming wreckage, causing at least one serious injury. Debris from the damaged vehicles flew across freeway lanes and the McLaren “disintegrated,” CHP Officer Jake Sanchez said. Sanchez said he believes Heitmann entered the freeway at Carroll Canyon Road. A crash investigation and cleanup of the freeway kept three lanes closed for 10 hours. “At the time of the crash, he could have been going over 100 mph,” Sanchez said of Heitmann. “The McLaren is one of the fastest cars in the world.” Advertisement The McLaren website described various models of handmade cars that can top 200 mph. A McLaren company spokesman said about 1,300 of sports cars are sold in the United States and Canada each year, with California leading the sales. He said the nearest dealerships to San Diego are in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and Scottsdale, Ariz. Sanchez confirmed that the McLaren in the freeway crash is the same car that, about 20 minutes earlier, smashed through a metal gate to a field at Ashley Falls Elementary School in Carmel Valley. San Diego police said witnesses reported that a black car drove through the gate. No one was injured and a vandalism report was taken. Fox 5 reported that witnesses said the driver had gotten out of the car, smashed a window at the school and then left. Advertisement The TV station also said police went to the Heitmann family home on Sea Knoll Court in Carmel Valley after the teen’s father reported that his son had sped away, hitting another family car late Thursday afternoon. The man described on Twitter as “McSkillet” regularly posted YouTube videos about his websites, CSGOMagic and skin.game, devoted to the Counter-Strike video game and gambling. He posted a video in December of the black McLaren 650S he had bought some months earlier. Without appearing on camera himself, he shows close-ups of the car interior, back end and full view with open wing-like doors. He describes the car as “pretty damn insane” and said he could afford it because he had “made a ton” of money online, with nearly 900,000 subscribers. Advertisement Waking up to seeing what McSkillet did, I have no words honestly.. I’ve watched him since 2015 and for him to go and do something like that is just mind blowing. R.I.P to all involved. — Cam (@camaron9769) August 24, 2018 One person on Twitter said the McLaren driver was his friend who was going through a hard time. Some tweets said that McSkillet had lost his income when the Counter-Strike game developer, Valve, “banned his life’s work” in selling slick decals, or “skins” for virtual gaming guns and other toys. Others on Twitter condemned him for killing two innocent people. Kevin Hitt, editor in chief of VPesport.com online gaming news outlet, said Valve, under constraints from the state of Washington gambling commission, confiscated about $200,000 worth of McSkillet’s skins and shut down his ability to acquire more. Advertisement Hitt said McSkillet, and others in the gaming gambling world, would take bets on the potential value of skins, and third-party sites would use software to assign a dollar value to different styles of skins, based on their relative rarity. Other sites would make the payouts to betters, taking a commission. Dominic Pizarro, 22, said his mother and sister were headed to Orange County when they got into the freeway collision. When they didn’t return, his 19-year-old brother Angelo checked the internet for information about any crashes on the freeways they might have traveled. He found news of the fiery crash. And later, a CHP officer knocked on the door of the Pizarro family home. The teen called his older brother — who was out of state, driving back from a trip with their maternal grandfather, Miguel Pizarro — and gave him the stunning news. Advertisement “I lost it,” Dominic Pizarro said Friday as he drove back to San Diego with his grandfather. An Air Force Reservist who is starting work on his masters degree, Pizarro said he’d last seen and hugged his mom and sister last week, before leaving on a trip with his grandfather, who also lives at the family home. During his last video chat with his sister — a day before the crash — Aryana was showing off her new school items, including pens and notebooks with unicorns. “She was a girly-girl, but she was also tough,” he said. “She was alive with energy.” Advertisement The three siblings are musically talented, and Aryana wanted to be a jazz singer, Pizarro said. “That was the kind of music she loved,” her brother said. “She could sing any pop song on the radio. (But) she knew Billie Holiday just as much as she knew Bruno Mars.” Their mother “did everything for us. We were raised by her and our grandpa,” Pizarro said. “She was selfless. She didn’t think about herself at all.” Aileen Pizarro’s passion as a therapist was working with children who had been removed from abusive homes, he said. Advertisement “She loved to work with them and tell them they were worth something,” Pizarro said. “She went out of her way to bring light to them in hopeless situations.” Aileen Pizarro’s longtime boyfriend LeRoy Phillips, Jr. said she was his high school crush. They lost contact but reconnected eight or nine years ago. He said she was “an incredibly bright and beautiful person” who always put her children first, and was working toward her therapy license. “She could raise three kids and put herself through school to get her masters — by herself — just to give them the best she can give them,” Phillips said Advertisement The family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral costs and additional expenses. Staff writer Alex Riggins contributed to this story. Advertisement pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard Advertisement UPDATES: 6:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the mother and daughter who were killed in the crash. 4:10 p.m.: This article was updated to include the name of the 18-year-old wrong-way driver. This article was originally published at 9:10 a.m.<doc-sep>
YouTube star McSkilett has died after driving his McLaren 650S sports car the wrong way down a crowded San Diego highway on Thursday YouTube star McSkillet died after driving his McLaren 650S sports car the wrong way down a crowded San Diego highway on Thursday, authorities said. The crash also killed two others — a 43-year-old mother and her 12-year-old daughter, according to the San Diego medical examiner’s office. Their identities were not immediately released. The 18-year-old YouTuber, born Trevor Heitmann, was reportedly driving his car at nearly 100 miles an hour south into oncoming traffic in the northbound carpool lane near University City on the I-805 highway. The vehicle struck a 2010 Hyundai SUV, causing it to burst into flames. According to the medical examiner’s report, the two occupants of the vehicle, as well as Heitmann, were pronounced dead at the scene — the latter due to “blunt force trauma.” According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the crash impacted nearly a dozen automobiles caught in rush hour traffic, with “multiple vehicles on fire,” CHP Officer Mary Bailey said. One motorist was reportedly seriously injured but is expected to survive. “People were running around … and someone was on the ground,” an eyewitness told the outlet. “They were trying to help him, he was raising his hand, and they were just surrounding him.” California Highway Patrol is currently investigating whether Heitmann was intentionally driving into oncoming traffic. According to multiple reports, authorities believe Heitmann was involved in an incident at Ashley Falls School in San Diego just 30 minutes before the fatal crash. CNN obtained a statement from the school stating that a car, believed to be Heitmann’s, “drove through the side gate and an individual got out of the car and threw an item at a door, breaking a window.” trevor-heitmann-b Trevor “McSkillet” Heitmann. | Credit: San Diego Police Department