Biography

Died after a scuffle with the LAPD on the evening of February 20, 1983.

According to the Escondido (CA) Times Advocate of Tuesday, February 22, 1983. police went to Vitte's apartment in Studio City just before 11 p.m. the prior Sunday after receiving complaints of a man shouting and chanting since that morning. Vitte answered in undershorts and a white shirt, and then ordered the officers to leave his home, saying he had placed a curse on them. Police said Vitte frequently used the name of Mohammed in his chanting. The actor lunged at officer Ronald Miller, who struck Vitte with a baton with no apparent effect. When Vitte lunged at the policemen again, officer Douglas Caples sprayed him thrice with tear gas, again with no apparent effect. Caples also struck Vitte several times on the arms and upper torso with a nightstick, but the actor ran toward a pool area, where he fell on the concrete and slipped partway into the water. He was handcuffed and carried screaming to a patrol car where the officers planned to take him to a hospital for mental evaluation. However, Vitte ceased breathing, so the officers drove him to Sherman Oaks Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:59 p.m.

According to the Napa Valley (CA) Register of Wednesday, April 20, 1983, the Los Angeles Coroner's Office found that Vitte died of heart failure due to a lack of oxygen from hepatic necrosis of the liver, secondary to sickle cell anemia. Vitte was involved in a physical altercation with police just moments before his death in the back of a police car on the prior February 20, but his death was not due to the minor injuries he received in the struggle, according to the coroner.

Ray Vitte died from having sickle cell disease which caused hepatic necrosis of the liver which caused heart failure which caused death. Neighbors said he was screaming & chanting from 10 AM until 11 PM. This was due to toxins flooding the brain because his liver was unable to filter due to hepatic necrosis which impairs central nervous system, leading to intense psychiatric and neurological symptoms. Continuous chanting from morning until night is highly characteristic of the extreme agitation, fixation, and cognitive disruption caused by toxic brain swelling. Intense, active psychiatric effects usually last anywhere from 12 hours to 48 hours before a person lapses into unconsciousness and dies, such as what happened to Ray Vitte.