A father from Fresno is mourning the death of his son 23-year-old Anthony Mata. Mata was one of 16,000 young people attending a rave concert at the Cow Palace Saturday night.
Police say Mata was one of at least eight people, ranging in age from 17 to 28, who got extremely sick after ingesting the party drug ecstasy.
"The symptoms are very severe of some of the victims, and they go beyond what is normally seen in simple drug overdoses," said Capt. Cory Roay with the Daly City Police.
The victims bled internally and suffered kidney failure, leaving police to wonder if the drugs had been cut or mixed with a toxic substance.
100 undercover agents were inside the rave. They handed out notices to ticket holders that they would be soliciting drugs and making arrests. 68 adults and five juveniles were arrested for selling. 800 drug tablets and capsules were seized. They are being analyzed to see if they are tied to Mata's death and the critical illness of others.
Dan Mata was told his son was unable to communicate with the emergency medical team treating him, so he's puzzled by what happened to his son. "I've talked to all his friends. Everyone that knows him. It would be completely uncharacteristic of him, to take drugs."
His son Anthony was an auto mechanic, he loved to work on his black Subaru, and he stayed at his grandmother's house to help care for her.
In 2002, a promoter staged a similar rave party that resulted in two deaths and nine hospitalizations. Nearly 80 drug arrests were made at a Cow Palace rave party last year.
"It just seems like every time we hear about these type of rave parties, nothing positive comes out of it," said Dan Mata.
