Arrest Made for Hells Angels Funeral Death

A four-month manhunt ended Saturday with the arrest of Steve Ruiz, who is suspected of killing fellow Hells Angels motorcycle club member
Steve Tausan at a funeral
during October of last year. Ruiz will reportedly be charged with homicide Wednesday.

Ruiz surrendered around 7:30pm Saturday after San Jose police surrounded his Day’s Inn motel on Warm Springs Boulevard in Fremont. Police have been looking for Ruiz since Oct. 15, when Tausan was shot and killed at the funeral of Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, the former San Jose Hells Angels chapter president and a city of San Jose employee. Pettigrew was killed in a violent clash between rival motorcycle clubs in a Nevada casino.

Ruiz and Tausan allegedly got into an argument over Ruiz’s failure to protect Pettigrew last September in the casino squabble with the Vagos, a rival club. The blow-up allegedly prompted Ruiz to pull a gun on Tausan. Despite a heavy police presence at the service, San Jose police arrived at the scene to find it had been “tampered with” and that Ruiz had disappeared.

Ruiz evaded the authorities for more than four months. Initially, police suspected Ruiz was buried with Pettigrew, which resulted in a judge giving police permission to exhume Pettigrew’s grave.

Despite taking Ruiz into custody, police say more arrests could be made. “If someone helped him evade capture, we’re going to come after them,” said Sgt. Jason Dwyer.

3 Comments

  1. > Ruiz evaded the authorities for more than four months. Initially, police suspected Ruiz was buried with Pettigrew, which resulted in a judge giving police permission to exhume Pettigrew’s grave.

    Weird!

    Do I smell a screenplay, or what!

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