Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
SAN JOSE -- A man suspected of fatally shooting a member of the Hells Angels at a funeral in San Jose might have been spirited away - or killed - by fellow motorcycle club members, police said Tuesday.
Steve Tausan, 52, a Hells Angels member and local bail bondsman, was shot and killed while attending a funeral for Jeffrey Pettigrew, president of the San Jose chapter of the motorcycle club, Saturday at the Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park on Curtner Avenue.
After the shooting, the suspect, Steve Ruiz, disappeared and one or more people tampered with the crime scene, washing away bloodstains and removing evidence of the shooting, police said.
Police found Ruiz's motorcycle at the funeral, Lt. Alan Cavallo said. Ruiz has not come to claim it.
Investigators even obtained a search warrant to dig up Pettigrew's grave, Cavallo said. "We did that based on information that it was possible Mr. Ruiz was in that hole, and we wanted to verify that he was not in there," he said.
Police said Pettigrew was shot and killed Sept. 23 by Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, an alleged member of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang, at John Ascuaga's Nugget casino in Sparks, Nev. Gonzalez, 53, of San Jose was arrested by a UCSF police officer in San Francisco six days later.
Tausan and the manager of the Pink Poodle, a strip club west of San Jose, were tried for murder in 1999 in the beating death of a club customer two years earlier. They were acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Steve Tausan, 52, a Hells Angels member and local bail bondsman, was shot and killed while attending a funeral for Jeffrey Pettigrew, president of the San Jose chapter of the motorcycle club, Saturday at the Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park on Curtner Avenue.
After the shooting, the suspect, Steve Ruiz, disappeared and one or more people tampered with the crime scene, washing away bloodstains and removing evidence of the shooting, police said.
Police found Ruiz's motorcycle at the funeral, Lt. Alan Cavallo said. Ruiz has not come to claim it.
Investigators even obtained a search warrant to dig up Pettigrew's grave, Cavallo said. "We did that based on information that it was possible Mr. Ruiz was in that hole, and we wanted to verify that he was not in there," he said.
Police said Pettigrew was shot and killed Sept. 23 by Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, an alleged member of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang, at John Ascuaga's Nugget casino in Sparks, Nev. Gonzalez, 53, of San Jose was arrested by a UCSF police officer in San Francisco six days later.
Tausan and the manager of the Pink Poodle, a strip club west of San Jose, were tried for murder in 1999 in the beating death of a club customer two years earlier. They were acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/18/BALO1LJ5VH.DTL#ixzz1bH6WQ3qc
