Cyclist killed in collision with police was active in bike polo

Donald Pinkerton-DeVito died when he collided with a police car near John McLaren Park in San Francisco. Donald Pinkerton-DeVito died when he collided with a police car near John McLaren Park in San Francisco. Photo: John Pinkerton Photo: John Pinkerton Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Cyclist killed in collision with police was active in bike polo 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A young man killed Friday when his bike collided with a police car in San Francisco has been identified by officials and relatives as a well-loved 23-year-old who was active in the city’s bike polo scene.

Authorities, meanwhile, continued Monday to piece together the circumstances that led to the death of Donald Pinkerton-DeVito, an avid cyclist known to his friends and family as “D.J.”

“There was a light around that kid,” the victim’s uncle, John Pinkerton, 45, said in a tearful interview Sunday. “He was just pure love. Anywhere he went, he would meet people and befriend them.”

News of Pinkerton-DeVito’s death has been spreading around the city’s tight-knit cycling community, with friends and loved ones offering condolences on his Facebook page.

“It just makes me feel good knowing that he didn’t just touch me and my family, he reached out and made an impression on everyone he met,” said his mother, Tanya Pinkerton, who lives in Albuquerque. “I just appreciate all the people that loved my son. It makes me feel good knowing he was loved like that.”

Riding home after game

Pinkerton-DeVito had attended a bike polo event Friday night — a popular cycling sport in which polo players use fixed-gear bicycles on pavement instead of horses on lawns — and was riding home when he collided with a police cruiser around 9 p.m. at Sunnydale and Persia avenues near the edge of John McLaren Park, police said.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances of the collision, which they called “a tragedy.”

It was not immediately clear if the patrol vehicle hit Pinkerton-DeVito or if he hit the police car, said Officer Albie Esparza, a San Francisco police spokesman.

Residents around the crash scene over the weekend described seeing police frequently traveling fast through the area en route to high-crime areas nearby.

“I still don’t know what had happened,” Tanya Pinkerton said. “I understand that everything has to be under investigation, but I want to know what happened to him.”

Pinkerton-DeVito moved to San Francisco from Albuquerque when he was 17 years old and later studied for a year at Full Sail University in Florida before returning to the Bay Area. He worked as a project manager at DaVinci Fusion, a San Francisco event design and production company, his family said.

John Pinkerton, who lives in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, last saw his nephew in March. He said he found out Pinkerton-DeVito had died after getting a call from his friends Saturday morning.

‘The best person’

Those in the bike polo group had heard one of their friends was killed in the wreck, and after texting all the members, they determined that Pinkerton-DeVito was probably the victim.

“He was just starting off with his life and just starting to make money,” John Pinkerton said. “Every good quality humans should have, he had them in spades. If you talked to anybody, they would tell you he’s the best person.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky