The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office has ruled the fatal 2019 shooting of Cameron Ely by four Sheriff’s deputies a justifiable homicide. Ely, the 30-year-old son of Tarzan actor Ron Ely, was unarmed when he was shot 22 times outside his family’s Hope Ranch estate, where earlier in the evening authorities say he had stabbed and killed his mother, Valerie.
A large portion of the 12-page report published Tuesday by the District Attorney’s Office focuses on the few brief moments leading up to the shooting. It states that after deputies found Valerie and were searching the property, they spotted Ely walking up the driveway toward them. They saw he had blood on him and “yelled multiple times to get down on the ground and to keep his hands up,” states the report, which based many of its findings on deputy interviews conducted internally by the Sheriff’s Office.
Ely appeared to initially comply, but then “sprang upward” and yelled “I have a gun!” while reaching for his waistband, the report continues. All four deputies opened fire, striking Ely in the torso, neck, and arms. They provided investigators with vivid descriptions of how Ely had purportedly moved, saying he was “like a runner out of the gate … lunging up and forward, but more forward than upward … like a lineman in a football game.” A search of his pockets turned up an iPhone, car key fob, small baggie of cocaine, and other items, but no gun.