ME: Devon Dalio death accidental
GREENWICH — The death of Devon Dalio, who died in a fiery car crash into a retail store in Greenwich last month, has been categorized as accidental by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Dalio, 42, died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries in the Dec. 17, the M.E.’s office said Thursday afternoon. No other information was released on the crash.
Dalio was at the wheel of a 2016 Audi when it crashed into a Verizon store in the Riverside Commons shopping center in Greenwich and caught fire, police said. The fire marshal’s office said the car’s gas tank ruptured and caused the blaze, which destroyed the Verizon store and damaged other businesses in the structure.
Police said they had no further information to provide on Dalio’s death or the crash. Capt. Mark Zuccerella said the case was still under investigation.
Officers and bystanders were unable to enter the store after the crash due to the intensity of the flames. The Verizon workers ran out of the store and were not injured in the blaze.
Dalio, who grew up in Greenwich, was the son of local philanthropists Ray and Barbara Dalio. Ray Dalio is the founder of the Westport-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and is considered to be Connecticut’s wealthiest resident.
Devon Dalio was the co-founder of P-Squared Management Enterprises, a private equity firm that is
focused health-care technology companies. He served as a board member of the family’s foundation, Dalio Philanthropies. He graduated from Lafayette College.
Bruce Zimmerman, a friend and associate, told an industry trade magazine, Institutional Investor, that Dalio was “admirable” and “principled.” Zimmerman told the magazine, “My first impressions when I met him: Kind. Passionate. Inquisitive. Generous. Loved his family, his parents, his brothers, his wife, his child. A loving man.”
In addition to his parents, Devon Dalio was survived by his wife and daughter. Memorial arrangements were private.
The death of his son “triggered an enormous amount of pain and reflection,” Ray Dalio said in a lengthy essay published on his LinkedIn account about two weeks after the crash.
“Over that time, I went through a journey that I’m still on,” Dalio wrote.