BMX legend Dave Mirra died last night in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina from an apparent self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head. No immediate details are available surrounding the circumstances of his death, only that Mirra was found in his truck and was alone when it happened.
Mirra, 41, was a pioneer for a sport that was in it’s mainstream infancy in the mid to late 90s and helped propel the X Games into the sport’s premiere competition.
Earlier, fellow action sports giant Tony Hawk shared his thoughts on Mirra via Twitter:
Goodbye Dave Mirra, a true pioneer, icon and legend. Thank you for the memories… we are heartbroken. pic.twitter.com/RHpTe7Qzwi
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) February 5, 2016
In a press conference held yesterday, Greenville Mayor Allen Thomas did allude to the troubling suggestion that CTE may have played a factor in his suicide. If autopsies later show that Mirra did, indeed, suffer from CTE, he would be the first in his sport to be linked to the epidemic.
