Andrew Scott Reisse, an accomplished developer at Oculus VR, the company behind the virtual-reality Oculus Rift headset, was killed in Santa Ana, California on Thursday. He was an innocent victim of a police chase gone horribly wrong.


Reisse was apparently out for a walk when an alleged gang member, fleeing the police in a Dodge Charger, allegedly barreled into the intersection of Flower Street and MacArthur Boulevard, hitting and killing the 33-year-old developer. The driver may face murder charges, according to ABC News (via NeoGAF).

Oculus CEO Brenden Iribe and chief software architect Michael Antonov issued the following statement to Kotaku about Reisse on behalf of all of their company :

Andrew was a brilliant computer graphics engineer, an avid photographer and hiker who loved nature, a true loyal friend, and a founding member of our close-knit Oculus family. Some of us have known Andrew since college, and have worked with him at multiple companies beginning with Scaleform in Maryland which he helped start at age 19, then at Gaikai in Aliso Viejo which brought him out to California, and finally at Oculus where he was a co-founder and lead engineer. Andrew's contributions span far and wide in the video game industry. His code is embedded in thousands of games played by millions of people around the world. Words can not express how sorely he will be missed or how deeply our sympathy runs for his family Andrew will always be in our thoughts and will never be forgotten. We love you Reisse.


We at Kotaku would also like to wish our condolences to Reisse's family and friends.