SIERRA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) – A Danville doctor and father of three was shot to death by a gunman while on a trip with his son over the weekend in Sierra County.
According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, 45-year-old Ari Gershman was off-roading in a new four-wheel-drive Jeep with his son Jack near Downieville when the two got lost in Tahoe National Forest.
At some point, an unidentified gunman opened fire on Gershman, killing him.
The fundraising page states Gershman’s son hid in the wilderness for over 30 hours until he was found by a search team and rescued Saturday.
In a Facebook post, the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect was later stopped in an ATV and is suspected of shooting and wounding two other people in a separate attack Friday.
The suspect took off and led deputies on a chase but was taken into custody about a mile north of Highway 49.
Authorities identified the suspect as 40-year-old John Thomas Conway from Oroville.
The sheriff’s office said it will release more information “in the coming days.”
“He was a good guy he was a really good guy,” Kelley Masuda said.
Kelley Masuda worked with Gershman several years ago at a biopharmaceutical company in Foster City.
She describes her former colleague as being a fun loving, kind hearted soul with a large presence.
“You just got to love him, he was just one of those guys you just love right off the bat. So this is extremely difficult when you think about whats happened today, it’s really hard to digest because you never can understand and wrap your head around why it’s the good people and he was a really good person,” Masuda said.
Ari Gershman leaves behind his wife Paige, who is “in the fight of her life right now undergoing Chemo treatments for Cancer,” and their three children, according to the family’s fundraising page.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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