(PNS reporting from LOS ANGELES) Jimmy “Doc” Juanes was found dead on Hyperion Boulevard near Fountain Avenue here late Sunday night in what the LAPD called a freak DIY project gone wrong.
The 28-year-old USC masters student in French literature was known around his Silverlake neighborhood for his inventive do-it-yourself projects that pushed the envelope for what is considered “standard” in the DIY/Maker community, and police here said that led to his demise.
Officers at the Northeast Community Station said they were not unfamiliar with Juanes, who over the years had become the brunt of DIY jokes around the precinct.
There was the time, for example, Juanes was impaled by the multiple cacti he was raising on his small apartment patio, one officer told PNS.
Then there was the incident with the straight razor and Juanes’ best friend Ted who wanted an “authentic” DIY shave.
Also, police tried not to laugh when they remembered the DIY enemas Juanes tried to give his girlfriend Gwendolyn that resulted in a most unpleasant flooding experience for his downstairs neighbor, Allie Bensen.
Ultimately, it was a freak accident with a DIY slingshot on a DIY community policing “neighborhood watch” expedition that led to Juanes’ demise.
Juanes, police said, used his slingshot to “stop” Guillermo de la Peña, owner of Willie’s Casa de Tacos on Hyperion — who was having a hard time with the lock on the backdoor of his restaurant. When the owners’ dog ran after Juanes, he tripped over his bicycle and fell in front of the Metroplitan Transportation Agency’s (MTA) 175 bus, which crushed his chest.
Jones will be remembered by his hipster friends for pushing the limits of the DIY movement, and also the t-shirts he made for them for Christmas last year.