Edhat Staff
Law enforcement on the scene of Hope Ranch murder investigation on October 15, 2019 (Photo: John Palminteri)
By edhat staff
The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office has released the names of the officers involved in the Hope Ranch shooting of an unarmed murder suspect earlier this month.
At 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 15, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call at the home of actor Ron Ely in Hope Ranch.
Upon arrival, deputies contacted Ron Ely and discovered his wife, Valerie Lundeen Ely, 62, deceased with multiple stab wounds inside the home. While on the scene, deputies identified the murder suspect as their son, 30-year-old Cameron Ely.
Deputies searched the residence and surrounding area for Cameron. During the search, Cameron was located outside the home. According to the Sheriff’s Office, he told deputies that he had a gun and advanced towards the deputies, motioning with his hands as if he were drawing a weapon. In response, four deputies fired a total of 24 rounds from their service weapons, fatally wounding the suspect.
When deputies were able to safely approach Cameron using a ballistic shield, they discovered did not have a weapon. None of the deputies were injured during the confrontation with the suspect, reports the Sheriff’s Office.
The four deputies involved in the shooting were identified as:
- Sheriff’s Sergeant Desiree Thome: 12 years, 10 months of service
- Sheriff’s Deputy Special Duty Jeremy Rogers: 13 years, 10 months of service
- Sheriff’s Deputy Phillip Farley: 13 years, 5 months of service
- Sheriff’s Deputy John Gruttadaurio: 2 years of service
Ely attended San Marcos High School before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire. He was reportedly an accomplished football player where he played at Harvard.
From there, he’d go to Harvard where at one point he was a member of the football team. In a Harvard Crimson article in 2007, Ely was described as a player with “a GPA above 4.0, questionable arm strength and supreme intelligence.” He graduated from the Ivy League college in 2012 with a degree in psychology.
Ron Ely played a range of television roles in the 1960s but was best known for “Tarzan,” which aired from 1966 to 1968. He also had recurring or guest roles in notable shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Wonder Woman,” and a revival of “Sea Hunt” in the 1980s. He hosted the Miss America pageant in 1980 and 1981 before retiring from acting in 2001.
In 1984, Ron Ely married former Miss Florida Valerie Lundeen. Together they have three children, Kirsten, Kaitland, and Cameron.
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October 15, 2019: Wife and Son Killed in Tarzan Actor’s Hope Ranch Home
4 cops unloaded into an unarmed suspect. This is tragic.
“According to the Sheriff’s Office, he told deputies that he had a gun and advanced towards the deputies, motioning with his hands as if he were drawing a weapon.”
GIFTEDINSB – so what?
Fact: 4 cops shot an unarmed suspect. It’s in the article right there. Or… is it the statement that “this is tragic” that is upsetting so many of you fine folks?
A man just brutally stabbed his mother, tells you he has a gun and pretends to pull it out on you. I’d do exactly what the cops did. What would you do?
There was all the discussion on Edhat about the “21-foot rule.” However, that rule, the distance/reaction time only applies when officers’ guns are holstered. These officers had guns drawn and were facing a man who MIGHT have been armed? What it all comes down to is a man who was obviously in a high state of distress and far from thinking clearly. He was confronted by four armed law enforcement officers. The officers thought the man was armed. The officers were all trained for just such a confrontation. The fact that they shot him 24 times is what gets me. Think about it for a second. Six shots from each officer or only four from one and 8 shots from another and so on? It is overkill in every sense of the word.
4:50 – EXACTLY. Not even a warning shot? Just a full barrage of bullets into a suspect that wasn’t showing any weapons, only movement. Sorry folks, this isn’t right.
420722 – I don’t shoot him 24 times, that’s what I don’t do.
Body cam video with audio please.
All is well that ends well.
If he did kill his mother, he probably couldn’t live with it so of course he said and acted he was armed. But seeing the mom stabbed and maybe the only mention of a gun being present from the suspect when confronted, 24 shots seems excess.
No one gives “warning shots”, that’s all Hollywood. However my gut feeling tells me that the police story is not true. Four cops with adrenaline pumping, one shoots so they all shoot. And of course they will be the investigating body so the conclusion is already written.
The story builds up the murderer like he was a great guy/athlete/son
Four people shooting 6 bullets to take down a raging bull who just slaughtered his own mother? Sounds about right to me. Never will know which one fired the fatal shot and what is reasonable during a fast moving threat like this guy posed our trained officers. I am just glad no stray bullets ricocheted and hit one of our own LE members.
COOLIO – which horrible act? Murdering his mother or the cops gunning down an unarmed suspect?
Oh, great idea to wait until “seeing the gun first.” They “THOUGHT he had a gun?” Maybe firing back after he shoots one of the officers? They didn’t just “think” he had a gun, he said he did. The guy said he had a gun and acted as to pull it out. After seeing what the son did to his mother why would they not think he’d likely shoot them? “Shooting over his head” would have given him time to shoot them if in fact he had the gun he professed to have. Why wouldn’t they believe him?
When the copys say: “Stop, show me your hands…”, what is so hard to understand about that? Ignoring the cops at a moment like that has its pitfalls.
Heard any idea what led him to commit such a horrible act? Mental illness?
He no longer wanted to live why is that so hard to understand?
You are right about the young man being in a high state of distress and not thinking clearly. It seems the police were also in a high state of distress and not thinking clearly. The police definitely should have fired a warning shot above his head. The shock of the young man hearing a shot might just have brought him to his senses that he had better obey. But, alas, no one was thinking clearly here. Now THAT IS tragic.
The hard part to understand is that the police fell for it. They fell for the suicide-by-cop ruse. They should have known better or have been trained to know better.
4 Cops shot 24 times that is aprox. 6 each at a male suspect 6’6 acting as if he has a gun and is going to shoot at you…You do not know what you would do unless you experienced it first hand, many police officers unload out of fear when facing someone with a gun who is pointing it at them it’s a natural response.
420722… so now “thinking he has a gun” is grounds to shoot someone? Whatever happened to seeing a gun first? If I was to think you had committed a murder (someone said so) would I be justified in shooting you on the spot? So much for due process. Bad enough that officers can mistake a cellphone for gun but “to fear for one’s life” because of the movement of one’s hands is a pathetic abuse of power. I’d say you like so many officers down south and now here too just like any excuse to put all your gun range training into practise against a living live target.
Innocent until proven guilty by a jury of peers. Not judge, jury and executioners. I get these moments can be tense but its far too clear the motto of police is to shoot to kill first and then ask questions. If they are so terrified then just get another job and don’t live in fear. It will be better for all of us.
What kind of “motioning” is so scary that not one but four officers would fear for their lives before being sure that they were in actual fact in any danger? Sounds like southern States aren’t the only place that hire such scaredy cats for law enforcement.
I wasnt there and dont pretend to know the actual happenings of the scene, but this sure does seems like a lot of bullets fired for a single, unarmed person. So it would appear that the cops overreacted. I suggest these 150k a year warriors take a look at how the police in the UK deal with knife wielding suspects – they do it without deadly force or an absurd amount of bullets fired in an obvious panic. 30 years of teaching “Peace Officers” how to escalate a situation into violence and act as if they’re always in mortal danger has not fared well for society or the police themselves. How about they take some basic courses in de-escalation tactics instead of spending 1000’s of hours shooting their service weapons? After all, to a man with a hammer, everything is a nail… And these guys are walking, talking hammers.
We can train officers to wait until the suspect starts shooting at them too, but does that make sense?? Seconds count when the suspect reaches for what you believe to be a weapon, gun or knife, especially if said suspect makes an advance towards an officer(s). Please use some common sense when trying to apply what you think you know and not having been in the same situation.
If a guy is willing to stab his mother multiple times, it’s hard to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he’s just kidding when he says he has a gun and pretends to reach for it. They’re not only protecting themselves, they were protecting each other.
This is such a terrible tragedy for all involved, including the Police Officers. This young man had so much promise, and by all accounts, came from a loving, supportive family. I hope they give him an autopsy to find out what caused his drastic change in personality after College. I suspect he suffered from CTE. If so, maybe this tragedy will lead to increasing much needed research on the condition. We really need to find a way to diagnose it early on, before more lives are destroyed by it. … maybe even consider making changes in the way Football is played, too, or at least in helmet construction.
After reading all of the available information, it is my opinion that the cops reacted appropriately. As to the judge/jury/executioner theory, not even close. The only executioner was the young man who jabbed/slashed/stabbed/cut/butchered his own mother and didn’t have to spend a moment in jail. For the math “whiz” out there, you can subtract at least $3.75 million from your calculations ($75k per year to house this “gent” for 50 years).
It is a complete tragedy that this young man died at the hands of law enforcement, but he was determined to lose his life that day. It seems that many “hate” LE for simply doing their job. Warning shots? 20/20 hindsight? Monday morning quarterbacking? This is not the movies people. This is not a television show. Get real peeps. I would like everyone to think about this: You see a deceased woman stabbed numerous times, an elderly gentleman (Ron Ely) also in need of medical attention (I assume he was also stabbed or assaulted), then you see a young man covered in blood who states and motions that he has a gun. Whattaya do? What you do is give him the 24 rounds and then the bunch of you get to go home to your family. Warning shots……sheesh!
Its all part and parcel of living in a diverse and multicultural society. The police werent acting this way back when America was 85% white.