Ed Ashman was 81 years old and still showing up. He worked as a substitute teacher at El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California. Before that, he flew combat missions in Vietnam as a captain in the United States Marine Corps. From the military to the classroom, the man spent his life in service to other people, and at 81, he still wasn’t done.
On April 16, on his walk home from school, a 14-year-old boy doing wheelies on a Surron e-motorcycle slammed into him near the intersection of Toledo Way and Ridge Route Drive. The boy rode away. Ed Ashman, an 81-year-old combat veteran, lay on the pavement with injuries that would kill him two weeks later.
The Boy’s Mother Bought Him the Machine That Killed Ed Ashman
The rider was the 14-year-old son of Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo. The Surron e-motorcycle she purchased for him is 16 times more powerful than a standard e-bike and tops out at 58 miles per hour. California law classifies it as a motorcycle. Riding one legally requires a license, registration, insurance, and a minimum age of 16.
Her son had none of those things. He had a mother who bought him the vehicle anyway.
She Called the Police — But Not About the Motorcycle
Here is what makes this case so difficult to process. In June 2025, ten months before her son killed Ed Ashman, Mejer picked up the phone and called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Someone had posted photos of her son riding the e-motorcycle online, and she wanted something done about it.
She wasn’t calling because her 13-year-old was illegally operating a machine that could hit highway speeds. She was calling because there were pictures of it on the internet.
During that call, recorded on body-worn camera, Mejer admitted she had bought the Surron and that her son rode it recklessly. Two deputies spent 28 minutes — nearly half an hour — walking her through everything: the vehicle was illegal for her son to ride, the riding was dangerous, and she could face criminal charges if she didn’t stop it.
She didn’t stop it.
After Her Son Killed a Man, She Told Police the Motorcycle Didn’t Exist
On the day of the crash, with Ed Ashman in the hospital clinging to life, investigators approached Mejer about what had happened. According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, she told them neither she nor her son owned or had access to a Surron e-motorcycle.
This is the same vehicle she told deputies she purchased. The same one she discussed on body-worn camera for 28 minutes. The same one her son rode into an 81-year-old man who was doing nothing but walking home.
She had been warned. She ignored the warning. Her son killed a man. And when the authorities came asking, she pretended the motorcycle never existed.
Ed Ashman Deserved Better Than This
Ashman died on April 30. A GoFundMe set up for his family calls him a fighter, and everything about his life backs that up. He served his country in combat. He came home and kept serving in classrooms. At an age when most people have long since stepped back, Ed Ashman was still showing up to help other people’s kids.
He survived Vietnam. He did not survive a walk home from school in suburban Orange County.
The DA Says This Is Just the Beginning
Mejer has been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, accessory after the fact, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing false information to a peace officer, and permitting an unlicensed minor to drive a motor vehicle. She faces up to seven years and eight months in prison.
She is the third parent in Orange County this year charged with allowing a child to illegally ride an e-motorcycle. In March, a Yorba Linda father was charged after his 12-year-old son ran a red light on a modified e-motorcycle and was critically injured when he was hit by a car.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer isn’t being subtle about what comes next. “Parents who buy their child an e-motorcycle and let them ride them illegally are handing their children a loaded weapon,” he said. “And those parents are going to be prosecuted.”
Mejer’s arraignment is set for May 21. Ed Ashman’s family has a GoFundMe page and a funeral to show for theirs.