Point Reyes Light - December 23, 1999
CHP shoots Bolinas man's dad
A Bolinas man this week praised his father as a good man the day after California Highway Patrol officers shot him dead in a San Francisco parking lot to end a nearly 40-mile high-speed chase from Mountain View.
Lawmen said the father, Ruben Morales of Redwood City, jumped out of the Ford Escort he was driving shortly after midnight Tuesday, carrying what police later determined to be only a paint-ball gun.
"He was a good man," said his 18-year-old son, Derek James of Bolinas, on Wednesday. "He was loved."
The dark gray Ford that Morales was driving was registered in James' name.
Officer Shawn Chase of the California Highway Patrol said officers are still trying to understand why Morales fled from a traffic stop in Mountain View - where local police said he was driving erratically - and raced northbound on Highway 101.
A couple of Highway Patrol cars took up the chase just north of Mountain View and followed Morales at speeds up to 95 m.p.h. The chase proceeded onto Interstate 280, with Morales exiting at Sixth Street in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.
Chase said one patrol car tried to run Morales off the road, but Morales recovered control of his Escort and drove into a chained-off parking lot at Third and King streets. There he jumped out of the car and pointed the paint-ball gun at his pursuers, the officer said.
By the time the second patrol car pulled up 20 seconds later, the two officers in the first car had shot Morales dead, Chase said.
"As soon as he got out and started turning around, they could see something in his hand," Chase said. "They thought it was a gun. They yelled three times, 'Drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!'"
The shooting was witnessed by a road crew at the other end of the parking lot, which was dimly lit by surrounding street lights, Chase said.
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating the shooting, although Chase said the officers involved behaved properly.
"They followed all the proper procedures," Chase said. "It's unfortunate that it turned out to be a paint gun... We don't know why he did it."