Ryan Dazzi was a 25-year-old White man from Barstow, California. Friends and family remembered him as a "fire cracker," a young man with a vibrant personality. His life was cut short in a violent confrontation in the early morning hours of February 10, 2024.
The incident took place at a home in the 1200 block of Joshua Tree Drive in Barstow. According to information later presented in court, Ryan had gone to the residence of Patrick Dull, a 50-year-old acquaintance, twice that night.
During his first visit around 1 a.m., Ryan threw a rock through a window of the house while Dull’s family was inside. He returned to the property about an hour later, around 2:15 a.m., to find Dull, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, outside boarding up the damage. The defense claimed that Ryan approached Dull, made threatening statements, and then charged at him on the front porch. Dull fired a single shot, striking Ryan in the abdomen.
Patrick Dull called the police himself to report the shooting. When Barstow police officers arrived, they found Ryan, who was unarmed, wounded near the front door. He was rushed to Barstow Community Hospital and then airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, but he died from his injury.
At the scene, police arrested Patrick Dull, who was booked into the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department jail on suspicion of murder. He was later charged with both murder and manslaughter. The case proceeded to trial in the Victorville branch of San Bernardino County Superior Court, where Dull’s attorney argued he had acted in lawful self-defense and in defense of his family. The court heard that Dull was a disabled veteran who suffered from PTSD related to his 24 years in the military.
On April 22, 2026, after more than two years of legal proceedings, a jury found Patrick Dull not guilty of all charges, accepting his claim of self-defense. Following the acquittal, the case was legally closed. The specific reason for the conflict that brought Ryan Dazzi to the home that night was never made clear during the trial.
