Woodbridge, California

From the Lodi News-Sentinel of July 14, 2006

Officials: Son threatened father with poker before shooting

Woodbridge father not arrested, son remains hospitalized

Before his father shot him in the leg Wednesday evening, Jason Roush allegedly threatened him with a poker and also had a court order not to harass his father.

Roush, 25, was wounded in the lower left leg when his father, Mel Roush, 55, fired a 9 mm handgun at him in the yard of his Woodbridge home, according to San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputies.

The younger Roush was treated at Lodi Memorial Hospital and listed in stable condition, but he was then transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He remained there Thursday evening and was listed in serious condition, a hospital spokesman said.

Court records show that Jason Roush is scheduled next Wednesday to begin serving a 45-day jail sentence for vandalizing his mother's property, and that he was already on probation for battery against his father.

Sheriff's officials on Thursday continued their investigation in the shooting but made no arrests.

The case will be given to the District Attorney's Office to determine whether charges should be filed or if it was a case of self-defense, Sheriff's spokesman Les Garcia said.

"The son was intoxicated and started to brandish a poker at several people, threatening to kill his father. In an effort to protect himself, the father shot at his (son's) lower body," Garcia said Thursday.

Mel Roush remained at the North Lower Sacramento Road scene after the 4 p.m. shooting Wednesday, and Lodi Police officers detained him and confiscated the gun. They turned the case over to arriving Sheriff's deputies.

Court records show that the younger Roush has pleaded guilty to various charges in eight separate criminal cases since 2001. The charges, all misdemeanors, included vandalism, battery, possession of controlled drug paraphernalia, vehicle theft and driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit.

He pleaded guilty to battery against his father on Sept. 30 and was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on five years of formal probation. Probation conditions included orders not to annoy, threaten, strike or harass Mel Roush, court records show.

Jason Roush was most recently in court June 21, three weeks before the shooting, because he had failed to serve a 30-day jail sentence for vandalism — a case that resulted in a judge ordering him to not harass his mother. A judge gave him 15 more days in jail and ordered him to appear at the county jail next Wednesday, a common practice for misdemeanor cases.