Sonoma Co. man arrested in Leggett shooting

An unidentified man killed, deputy injured during search

A Sonoma County man was arrested in connection with the shooting death of a man at a cannabis grow in northern Mendocino County, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.

According to the MCSO, deputies responded to the 50000 block of Bell Springs Road in Leggett around 1:30 a.m. July 23 when it was reported that a shooting had occurred on the property. While deputies were responding, the caller “reported hearing gunshots and subsequently found an adult male with an apparent gunshot wound. It was also reported the adult male was not breathing.”

When deputies arrived shortly before 3 a.m., they reportedly found “a deceased Hispanic adult male who appeared to have a gunshot wound to the leg,” and also saw “growing marijuana in greenhouses and in outdoor settings on

the property.”

As they searched the property, deputies requested air resources from the California Highway Patrol, and after a deputy spotted a man “running downhill on the property” around 4 a.m., a search for him was launched. Around 6 a.m., CHP Helicopter H14 from Redding arrived and “located two individuals who then were detained by deputies on the ground.”

An MCSO deputy reportedly “sustained a leg injury from a fall and had to be evacuated by ambulance to a local hospital for medical evaluation/treatment for a significant but non-life threatening injury, (and) personnel from the County of Mendocino

Marijuana Enforcement Team (COMMET) and Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force (MMCTF) were also summoned to the scene to investigation the legality of the marijuana growing operation found on the property.”

No further details about that investigation were released, but the MCSO reported Monday that a suspect in the shooting, Oscar Alvarez Ruiz, 23, of Rohnert Park, who was one of the two people detained on the property after the shooting, has been arrested and charged with murder.

He was booked into Mendocino County Jail and is being held without bail. The MCSO has not released the name of the victim “pending positive identification and notification to the next of kin,” and scheduled a forensic autopsy for July 28.