The fatal shooting of actor Ron Ely’s son by sheriff’s deputies last fall has been ruled a justifiable homicide by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
Cameron Ely, 30, was suspected of murdering his mother, Valerie Lundeen Ely, 62, at their residence in Hope Ranch on the night of Oct. 15, 2019.
Responding deputies shot and killed Ely, who was unarmed, on the driveway of the property where he lived with his parents.
A report released Tuesday afternoon by District Attorney Joyce Dudley provides the following account from the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation by Detective Matthew Banks:
Deputies responded to the Elys’ spacious residence at 4141 Mariposa Drive at about 8:30 p.m. following a 9-1-1 call in which Cameron Ely — before hanging up — reported his mother had tried to attack his father, and “I tried to defend him.”
When the 9-1-1 dispatcher called back, Ron Ely got on the phone, but she could not understand what he was saying; he had previously suffered a stroke, used a wheelchair, and was unable to speak clearly. The line then disconnected again.
Deputies John Gruttadaurio and Phil Farley and Senior Deputy Jeremy Rogers were the first to respond to the scene, parking on the street and walking up the circular driveway.
After knocking on the door and announcing their presence, the deputies heard moaning, looked inside, and saw Ron Ely, in a wheelchair, slowly approaching the front door.
Upon entering the residence, they saw Valerie Ely on the floor between the kitchen and dining area.
“Valerie was obviously deceased – a large kitchen knife was lodged in her chest, and a portion of her intestine protruded from another stab wound in her abdomen,” Banks wrote in his report.
Deputies searched the residence and talked to Ron Ely in an attempt to find out what happened.
“The deputies quickly realized that given Ron’s physical limitations, he could not have inflicted the injuries to Valerie, and that a suspect was outstanding,” Banks wrote.
Deputies learned from a neighborhood security guard that Cameron Ely also resided in the home.
Additional deputies were called to the scene, and they searched the residence and the 1.5-acre property.
Sometime after 9 p.m., Farley and Gruttadaurio saw Cameron Ely walk towards them on the driveway.
“Both deputies saw that Ely had blood on him and believed he was the suspect in Valerie’s murder,” Banks wrote.
At that point, the deputies pointed their guns at Ely, and Farley ordered him to get down on the ground.
Meanwhile, Gruttadaurio yelled for back-up from Sgt. Desiree Thome and Rogers, who were elsewhere on the property. Both came running and also drew their weapons, according to the report.
“Sergeant Thome saw that Ely was rocking, twitching and moving his hands. Even though it was dark, she was able to see that Ely was disheveled; he was wearing baggy sweatpants and one of the pockets was bulging/pulling down to the ground,” Banks wrote.
Farley had seen a stab wound on Ely’s neck and was preparing to approach him to render first aid when Thome, who was the supervisor, told him to wait, worried that the deputies did not have adequate control of the situation involving a violent murder suspect.
“Just as she was thinking this, she heard Deputy Gruttadaurio yell at Ely, ‘Don’t get up! Don’t get up!’” Banks wrote in the report.
“Ely suddenly sprang upward. As he was moving to his feet, Ely bent forward at the waist, quickly moved his hands toward his waist, and yelled, ‘I have a gun!’
Each of the deputies told investigators they heard Ely utter those words — they were “clear as day,” according to one.
“Ely’s sudden movement of springing up, reaching toward his waistband while yelling, ‘I have a gun!’ when they could not see what his hands were reaching for, coupled with their belief that Ely had just violently stabbed Valerie and could still be armed, made all four deputies fear for his or her life, or the lives of their fellow deputies,” according to the report.
The four deputies fired multiple rounds at Ely, hitting him 22 times, including wounds in his torso, back, neck, buttocks and arms.
The sheriff’s deputies reportedly did not have their body cameras turned on during the shooting, and Farley said he switched his on afterwards, according to Banks’ report.
Ely fell to the ground on his stomach, with his right hand underneath his body.
“Ely was moving and moaning, but did not remove his right hand from under his body. The deputies believed he had a weapon under his body and still presented a threat to their safety,” Banks wrote.
Another deputy was directed to retrieve a ballistics shield from one of the patrol vehicles so that they could safely approach Ely.
When they did, “Deputy Gruttadaurio grabbed Ely’s right arm, Sergeant Thome went to Ely’s feet and Deputy Farley grabbed Ely’s left arm to help handcuff him.
They quickly emptied Ely’s pockets to check for weapons, and found none.
“They did not find any weapons, but did find a metal garden hose tap splitter, a stack of playing cards, small rocks, a car key fob, an iPhone, crumpled papers, a bank card, a little plastic bag with a white powdery substance that later tested positive for cocaine, and a small plastic bottle labeled liquid vitamins.
“Once it was safe, Sergeant Thome called medics in to render aid to Ely. The medics arrived very quickly because they had been staging on the street by the top of the driveway,” according to the report.
Ely was pronounced dead at the scene.
During a subsequent search of the residence, investigators found a large kitchen knife wedged between the cushion and armrest of a loveseat in the family room, another large kitchen knife in an open drawer of an upstairs bedroom, and blood smears on nearby bedding.
In the garage, they found a third knife on a shelf near the open bay door and blood drops on the floor. They found additional drops of blood near a fourth kitchen knife driven into the dirt by the tennis court in the backyard.
“During the course of the investigation, detectives met with Ron, his two adult daughters, and a son-in-law. They learned from the family that Ely’s behavior had been ‘erratic,’ ‘unstable’ and ‘volatile’ for a long time, but it had been more concerning in the days leading up to October 15, 2019,” according to the report.
“One sister said his behavior was ‘definitely delusional.’ The other sister refused to go to the house on October 15, 2019, because she was afraid of him.
“During a phone call on October 15, 2019, she encouraged Valerie to call the police, but Ely had prevented Valerie from doing so. They suspected he had mental health issues, possibly related to his history of sustaining concussions playing football.”
An autopsy showed that Ely suffered 22 gunshot wounds, as well as sharp-force injuries to his neck and both wrists. He also had stab wounds to both thighs.
Toxicology tests revealed that Ely had amphetamine, THC and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
A neuropathologist who examined Ely’s brain diagnosed a stage 1 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition that can be caused by repeated blows to the head, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
An autopsy on Valerie Ely revealed seven stab wounds — to her chest, abdomen, back, and right forearm. She also had suffered 16 blunt-force injuries to her head, face, chest, abdomen, arms, hands, and legs.
Based on the above account provided in Banks’ report, Dudley determined that the deputies’ fatal shooting of Ely was a justifiable homicide.
“When Ely disobeyed verbal commands by deputies, sprang to his feet and moved his hands to his waistband as if grabbing a weapon while saying, ‘I have a gun!’ shortly after killing his mother, his actions created a reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury in the minds of deputies Gruttadaurio and Farley, Sergeant Thome and Senior Deputy Rogers…” Dudley concluded.
“Each of the deputies acted reasonably in his/her use of deadly force.”
Details in Banks’ report on the stabbing response, search and shooting are sharply at odds with the account provided in a federal civil rights lawsuit that Ron Ely filed against the Sheriff’s Department and the specific deputies.
The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles-area attorney DeWitt M. Lacy, contends the deputies had no reason “to use any force, especially deadly force” against Cameron Ely, stating that he was seen walking down the driveway from the backyard, obviously injured, with his hands up.
The lawsuit further alleges that dashboard camera video from the deputies’ patrol vehicles backs up this account.
Dudley’s report includes a footnote stating that Farley’s body camera captured audio and video of the deputy’s entry and initial contact with Ron Ely, as well as the subsequent search of the property, but had been shut off prior to the fatal encounter with Cameron:
“All of the deputies had Coban recording systems on their patrol cars. The Coban systems recorded video footage from directly in front of the patrol cars on the street. The Coban system also recorded audio from microphones on the deputies’ persons; however, because of the distance from where the patrol cars were parked to areas in the house and around the property, only portions of the events are audible,” according to the District Attorney’s Office.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.