Shooting of Offroaders

Kcrkolby

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Launch Member

Advocate III

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Morgan Hill, CA
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Hey everyone,

Any additional info out there on the fatal shooting of a man offroading with his son near downiville?



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The suspect was apprehended about a mile from Hwy. 49 on Saddleback Road. The lost child was found after spending 30 hours lost in the woods. The child was unharmed and in good health. The SCSO Investigation of the incident and scene has been completed and the trail is reopened. I literally just got off the phone with Sierra County Sheriff's Office regarding this.
 
We know nothing of the suspect so far? Kinda odd. Any other time 24 plus hours later we seem to know everything about a shooter. Sorta suspect that they haven’t even released a name.

Either way, terrible event. I feel for this kid. Will be a tough life event to overcome for sure.
 
We know nothing of the suspect so far? Kinda odd. Any other time 24 plus hours later we seem to know everything about a shooter. Sorta suspect that they haven’t even released a name.

Either way, terrible event. I feel for this kid. Will be a tough life event to overcome for sure.
I agree this is a very terrible event and I have to agree it sounds very odd...

Why would / did the shooter stick around for 30 hours after the shooting? This sounds almost too hard to believe... I would love to hear the rest of this story...
 
Because they're nuts.

We had more than a few crazy liberal types get jail time for stringing barbed wire across known dirtbike trails at neck height. Killed a few people. Oddly those trails had near zero impact on the environment. Mostly fire roads and pole lines. I still slowly prerun any loops before brapping, to this day, years later.

My story isn't rare unfortunately:


 
Because they're nuts.

We had more than a few crazy liberal types get jail time for stringing barbed wire across known dirtbike trails at neck height. Killed a few people. Oddly those trails had near zero impact on the environment. Mostly fire roads and pole lines. I still slowly prerun any loops before brapping, to this day, years later.

Used to have this in Michigan quite a bit. The snowmobilers don’t like Us with tires because we “tear up” trails. So they clothesline people with barbed wire, and hide cinder blocks in places to make you crash. Crazy people.
 
Weird. Especially cause snowmobiles roll right across rough trails easy. And snow by it's very nature smooths stuff out. Even if you wore a 6' deep water pit into the trail, mobiles can skitter right across that as well.

Nutty people.

Darn a newer report:
 
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Wonder if the guy was local and knew the deceased.

As for booby traps. It happens on the road too. More than one popular motorcycle road has been booby trapped with oil spills and gravel in corners and whatnot. Some folks have been arrested for placing them there over the years.
 
The worst I've seen while offroading public land is nails left on the trail, tank traps dug into the trail by locals and one time I came up on a meth addict who pulled a raven .25 on me so I pulled my s&w 9mm on him and he decided he didn't want to party.

I've heard all kinds of crazy stuff from other offroaders like fish hooks hanging from trees in camping areas

If this is happening in California on a regular basis its likely the narcos setting this stuff up to keep you away from their grows
 
This is all really good info, we are planing a roundtable discussion for a YouTube Live event in the next couple of weeks to discuss personal safety off road.

@Robert Jordan may have more info regarding the shooting in Sierra County once the Sheriff releases the Prelim Report and I am sure he will post it here.
 
This was an issue out here through the 80's. Same stuff on the desert tracks. One of my buddies was part of a patrol that ran back and forth all night on the Barstow to Vegas race. Each volunteer had about a mile. He told me on one occasion he was heading back and came across a series of boards with spikes. The trap was designed to throw you on the spikes. The trap wasn't there an hour before. Seemed the guy spent the night in a gully near by and waited until he thought the last patrol went by.
In my opinion, these people should be considered terrorists and treated as such.
 
I agree this is a very terrible event and I have to agree it sounds very odd...

Why would / did the shooter stick around for 30 hours after the shooting? This sounds almost too hard to believe... I would love to hear the rest of this story...
The shooter didn't stick around. It was the deceased mans teenage son who was lost in the woods for 30 hours.
 
This is all really good info, we are planing a roundtable discussion for a YouTube Live event in the next couple of weeks to discuss personal safety off road.

@Robert Jordan may have more info regarding the shooting in Sierra County once the Sheriff releases the Prelim Report and I am sure he will post it here.
Any further info I receive I will post. Nothing new at this time.
 
My understanding was the altercation started at a campground where the first 2 victims were shot, then the suspect fled on/in a stolen OHV (my understanding is that it was previously stolen, not stolen at that time). Suspect then came across the father and son in their Jeep, shot and killed the father and I believe took the Jeep. The son bailed out into the woods, where he ended up lost for ~30 hours but was found safe and mostly unharmed. It ended with a shoot out between the suspect and LEOs and the suspect was taken into custody (after being shot). The father and son were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems. I've heard nothing about what started the altercation up at the campsite, from which the suspect was fleeing. RUMORS (which are just that) are that the suspect was kind of a "hill person" and perhaps didn't like the campers in his woods - but I want to be exceptionally clear: those are just rumors.

-TJ
 
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My understanding was the altercation started at a campground where the first 2 victims were shot, then the suspect fled on/in a stolen OHV. Suspect then came across the father and son in their Jeep, shot and killed the father and I believe took the Jeep. The son bailed out into the woods, where he ended up lost for ~30 hours but was found safe and mostly unharmed. It ended with a shoot out between the suspect and LEOs and the suspect was taken into custody (after being shot). The father and son were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems. I've heard nothing about what started the altercation up at the campsite, from which the suspect was fleeing. RUMORS (which are just that) are that the suspect was kind of a "hill person" and perhaps didn't like the campers in his woods - but I want to be exceptionally clear: those are just rumors.

-TJ
The suspect did not take their Jeep. He was in a sidexside.
 
The shooter didn't stick around. It was the deceased mans teenage son who was lost in the woods for 30 hours.
I trust what you posted I was just going by the article posted above it said:
" Law enforcement officers found a man believed to be the shooter driving in an off-highway vehicle, shortly after Gershman's son was located. They tried to stop him, but the man sped off on Saddleback Road toward Downieville, the sheriff's office said. "
So my thinking is if the "shooter" was found after they located the son it must have been the next day because the son was located 30 hours later.

Maybe it was just a terribly written news article.

The suspect did not take their Jeep. He was in a sidexside.

I wonder if he stole the Jeep and then was later arrested in a sidexside? News reporters today are terrible with the facts... lol You live in that area so I am guessing your information is much better than the rest of us..
 
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I trust what you posted I was just going by the article posted above it said:
" Law enforcement officers found a man believed to be the shooter driving in an off-highway vehicle, shortly after Gershman's son was located. They tried to stop him, but the man sped off on Saddleback Road toward Downieville, the sheriff's office said. "
So my thinking is if the "shooter" was found after they located the son it must have been the next day because the son was located 30 hours later.

Maybe it was just a terribly written news article.



I wonder if he stole the Jeep and then was later arrested in a sidexside? News reporters today are terrible with the facts... lol You live in that area so I am guessing your information is much better than the rest of us..
All of my information is coming directly from SCSO. I don't trust anything that any of the news companies write anymore haha.
 
All of my information is coming directly from SCSO. I don't trust anything that any of the news companies write anymore haha.
Thank you for that Robert.