‘Dad’s been shot’: Trip turns into a tragedy
Ari Gershman took his 15yearold son Jack on a popular offroading trail near Poker Flat in the Sierra on Friday, excited to drive the red Jeep Rubicon he had bought the day before.
The novices were on trails they had only read about in the remote Tahoe National Forest when they pulled over at a fork, unsure which way they should go. A man driving an ATV pulled up behind the pair and Gershman asked for directions, according to his cousin, Marlo MeyersBarer, who spoke to The Chronicle and shared details on social media.
“The man out of nowhere started shooting at the Jeep,” MeyersBarer wrote. “Ari stepped on the gas to get out of harms way, but one of the shots ripped through the seat and hit him. He was able to get the Jeep
stopped so Jack was able to run into the forest to hide.”
The 45yearold Danville doctor died at the scene and his son spent 30 hours alone and lost in the dense woods, drinking from a stream, wearing only shorts and a Tshirt and covered in bug bites and scratches, before he was rescued. The alleged gunman was arrested shortly after Jack was found, following a police chase on his ATV. Moments before shooting Gershman, the man also allegedly shot and injured two other people nearby who survived, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Sierra County sheriff ’s deputies identified the suspect Tuesday as John Thomas Conway, a 40yearold Oroville resident who was arrested along Saddleback Road, about a mile north of Highway 49 in historic Gold Country where claim holders still mine. The Sheriff ’s Office said charges in connection with the shootings were expected soon.
Conway’s arrest came after an officerinvolved shooting and release of a police dog, the Sheriff’s Office said, and the suspect was treated for undisclosed wounds at a hospital. Last year, the Butte County Sheriff ’s Office listed Conway as one of its Most Wanted fugitives as he had outstanding felony warrants for vandalism, battery and two counts of making terrorist threats. A judge held a mental competency hearing and the case was allowed to continue, according to court records.
In January, he pleaded no contest to a felony vehicle theft charge as part of a plea deal and received a split sentence, eight months in jail and three years stayed. It’s unclear why he was out of custody, but a warrant was issued for his arrest June 10 after he violated his probation, according to court records.
It had already been a difficult year for Gershman’s family. His wife, Paige, a speech and language therapist for the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma six weeks ago and shaved her head last week, MeyersBarer said.
Gershman, an internal medicine doctor, bought the Jeep to share his love of the outdoors with his two sons and daughter. He had hoped to retire to the Downieville area, according to a GoFundMe fundraising account that had generated more than $300,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
Gershman, an avid mountain biker and outdoorsman, had purchased stacks of offroading books and had researched the Poker Flat area for a day trip.
“He loves to go on these crazy adventures,” MeyersBarer said.
The father and son left around 9 a.m. Friday and Paige tracked them on her phone, marveling at how they appeared to be in the “middle of nowhere,” the cousin said.
By Friday afternoon, Paige got good news. Her lab work came back with promising results and she texted her husband. As a doctor, he had meticulously monitored her progress, so she felt it was odd when he didn’t immediately respond, MeyersBarer said.
The cousin, who lives in San Ramon, had just returned home Friday afternoon after dropping off dinner at the Gershmans’ Danville house as part of a communitysupported meal train to help the family as Paige battled cancer, when she got a call from her mother. Ari had been shot.
Paige had received a brief, oneminute call around 5:30 p.m. from a breathless Jack: “Dad’s been shot and I think he’s dead and I’m running away, uphill and I don’t know where I am,” MeyersBarer recalled.
He explained it had taken him an hour to climb to find a signal for his cell phone, which had dropped to 1% battery power. He called 911 and then called his mom.
MeyersBarer drove Paige and her 16yearold son, Evan, up to Downieville, a fourhour trip. The youngest daughter Maci was with a friend at Lake Tahoe.
As they drove, text messages shot another person who confronted him rummaging through their belongings. He jumped in an ATV and fled, shooting a woman with her dog nearby, MeyersBarer said. Investigators said Conway did not know the victims, calling the shooting “random.”
After the man opened fire at the Jeep around 4:30 p.m., Gershman punched it and drove away. He then put the vehicle in park, allowing Jack to escape, and he collapsed on the ground, MeyersBarer said.
“(The shooter) had no connection to anybody,” she said. “It just appears like he was some psycho who thinks shooting someone is fun.”
The searchers brought in AT&T, which used satellites to track pings on Jack’s phone. While out of battery life, the satellites could still pick up signals to triangulate his location and guide a group of 70 searchers. Over the police scanner, MeyersBarer heard the search party announce they were within a half mile of his location and started yelling out his name.
“Heard juvenile,” crackled over the police scanner, MeyersBarer recalled. She didn’t want to alert Paige because she wasn’t sure, especially since they hadn’t slept all night, having binged on Diet Coke and candy. But moments later, around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, Autumn bounded down the stairs and yelled, “Jack’s been found!” Everyone cried. It took another five hours for authorities to extricate Jack from the forest and interview him. As the family waited, they heard deputies track down the gunman over the police radio. Conway approached a checkpoint in his ATV at a high rate of speed and a CDFW wildlife officer and USFS officer attempted to stop him but were almost run over, according to the Sheriff ’s Office. A third wildlife officer drove up the hill to block Conway’s escape and the vehicles collided.
“The suspect immediately represented a threat to the officers,” the Sheriff ’s Office wrote in a statement, which led to a shooting and release of a police dog.
Late Saturday, Jack, his white Tshirt brown with dirt, walked into the sheriff ’s station, where he was reunited with his mom.
“He clung onto Paige,” MeyersBarer recalled. “A fiveminute hug.”
On her social media post, MeyersBarer asked for the community to be kind.
“Be the kind of person who cares about other people like my cousin Ari,” she wrote.
Gershman spent his days at work leading clinical trials for lifesaving medications at biotech companies. But he mostly cared for his wife and three kids.
“He was an amazing, amazing guy and this doesn’t make sense at all,” MeyersBarer said.
“They’re just trying to make it through each day right now,” she said of the family. “We’re all just swarming Paige and helping her find out how to live her life without her best friend.”
On Monday, her first day back, Paige returned to the hospital for her third round of chemotherapy.