Former Athlete Killed After Running in Front of Truck

A 21-year-old Mission Viejo man was killed Friday when he jumped out of an ambulance on the 5 Freeway, broke free from an off-duty sheriff's deputy and ran into the path of an oncoming pickup truck, officials said.

The saga began Thursday night, when Orange County Sheriff's deputies responded to calls about a suicidal man at a home on Eagle Ridge Drive in Mission Viejo, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

The man, later identified as Brett Alan Weiner, wasn't home when they arrived, but he returned 10 minutes later and volunteered to undergo a mental health evaluation at Mission Hospital, where he remained overnight, Amormino said.

After authorities decided to treat Weiner at a facility in Los Angeles, he was put into an ambulance Friday morning, Amormino said.

But during the trip, Weiner's restraints came loose and the driver pulled over on the 5 near the 55 Freeway in Tustin about 8 a.m., Amormino said.

As paramedics tried to adjust the restraints, Weiner broke free, jumped out of the ambulance, ran across the northbound lanes, leaped over the center divider, dashed across the southbound lanes and onto a connector road, where an off-duty Orange County sheriff's deputy saw him, Amormino said.

The deputy "figures something's wrong so he attempts to restrain him, but [Weiner] breaks away and runs into traffic and gets hit,'' Amormino said.

Weiner, a 2008 graduate of Tesoro High, was an excellent athlete. In a prospectus on the 2007 football season, the Orange County Register listed him as one of the two fastest players on the team, running the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.

Tesoro was projected to finish fourth in the South Coast League that year. Weiner (6 feet tall, 200 pounds)  was a wide receiver, linebacker and punter for the Titans, and also returned kicks as Tesoro won the South Coast League title and ended Mission Viejo's streak of seven straight championships. In the game against Mission, a 28-24 victory in the league finale, Weiner had a season-high 14 tackles.

A week later, Tesoro lost its first-round playoff game to Mater Dei, 31-17, although Weiner intercepted a pass.

Weiner had good success against Mission Viejo; during his junior season, he logged seven receptions for 125 yards against the Diablos.

-- City News Service contributed to this report.