Tattoo artist Daniel Silva, who appeared on Paramount Network’s reality competition series Ink Master, was arrested Monday in the death of YouTube vlogger Corey La Barrie. Silva, 27, was driving a new McLaren sports car in a Los Angeles neighborhood Sunday night when the vehicle crashed into a stop sign and a tree, police said. Silva is an internationally known tattoo artist, with more than 1.1 million followers on Instagram and competed in Ink Master Season 10.
Silva was speeding down Huston Street in Valley Village when he lost control of the sports car and drove off the road, police told BuzzFeed News. He left the car and tried to leave the scene, but a witness stopped him, Detective Arvin Buenaventura said. The Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at the scene of the one-car crash and took Silva and La Barrie to the hospital.
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La Barrie died from his injuries, and Silva received treatment. Buenaventura said authorities would book Silva on a murder charge. (TMZ later confirmed police arrested Silva Monday evening). He was still at the hospital. He is being held on $200,000 bail, reports ABC7.
Police said the cause of the crash was speeding and did not confirm the identity of the deceased. However, La Barrie’s mother, Lisa Harrison, said her son was killed in the crash. Harrison and La Barrie’s brother Jarrad both suggested alcohol played a role in the collision in separate Instagram posts. Sunday was LaBarrie’s 25th birthday.
In his post, Jarrad wrote that his brother “passed away last night in a car accident with his drunk friend driving” and asked him to say hello to their grandparents. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Jarrad continued. “I don’t how I’m suppose to do this without you. I miss you so much already. This isn’t fair. Thank you for always being the best big brother I could ask for. I love you so f— much. Life’s never gonna be the same without you.”
La Barrie was a popular YouTube vlogger with more than 340,000 subscribers on the site, as well as 245,000 followers on Instagram. One of his last activities online was a livestream on Twitch, in which he celebrated his birthday with his friends. His final post on Twitter was a “thank you” to his followers for their birthday wishes.
Many of the responses to the tweet came from fans who could not believe the news of La Barrie’s death. “No no no this can’t be real. This hurts my heart,” one person wrote. “You weren’t under appreciated Corey. Rest in peace fly high angel,” another added.
