A Father-Son Outing Turns Deadly, Randomly

California doctor Ari Gershman was shot dead by a 'random gunman'
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 7, 2020 2:47 PM CDT
A Father-Son Outing Turns Deadly, Randomly
A stock image.   (Getty Images)

A California doctor was shot dead on Friday while off-roading in a new four-wheel drive Jeep with his 15-year-old son—who fled the gunman and survived a more than 30-hour ordeal in the Tahoe National Forest. Ari Gershman, a 45-year-old pulmonary doctor from Danville, was shot by a "random gunman" who drove up behind them on an ATV, per a GoFundMe campaign for the family. NBC Bay Area reports Gershman was struck in the chest. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the father and son were in remote Sierra County wilderness some 100 miles northeast of Sacramento when they were shot at; the boy called 911 after fleeing. The suspected gunman, who allegedly shot two other people prior to shooting Gershman, was arrested Saturday after trying to evade police on an ATV. The other two victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

In the teen's call to police, he said he had become lost. He was eventually found safe by a search party. The GoFundMe page notes that Ari's wife, Paige, "is in the fight of her life right now undergoing Chemo treatments for Cancer." It says that Gershman, a father of three, "died doing what he loved with his son in an area he had hoped to retire in one day." The campaign has raised more than $225,000 as of this writing. (More California stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X