By Khalida Sarwari
Police today identified a man who was shot to death at a funeral for a murdered Hells Angels member in San Jose on Saturday afternoon as 52-year-old Steve Tausan.
The funeral was being held at the Oak Hill Cemetery on Curtner Avenue and was attended by an estimated 4,000 people, Officer Jose Garcia said.
Garcia said the funeral was for Jeffrey Pettigrew, the 51-year-old president of the Hells Angels’ San Jose chapter who was killed at John Ascuaga’s Nugget casino resort in Sparks, Nev., on the night of Sept. 23.
Saturday’s shooting was reported around 12:50 p.m. Officers arrived at the cemetery and made their way through the crowd, but once they got to the crime scene, they found it had been “tampered with,” Garcia said. He did not explain further.
Someone at the funeral had taken Tausan to a hospital by the time the officers arrived. Tausan had been shot at least once and died of his injuries at the hospital, Garcia said.
Garcia said Tausan, a San Jose resident, was a “confirmed or validated member of the Hells Angels” motorcycle club. He would not comment on which chapter he was affiliated with.
In October 1997, Tausan and two others were charged with the murder of Kevin James Sullivan at the Pink Poodle strip club in San Jose on Aug. 24, 1997.
Tausan and one of the other defendants were ultimately acquitted by a jury. The third man pleaded no contest to a conspiracy charge before the trial started.
No arrests have been made in connection with Tausan’s murder, and as of this morning, police had not identified any suspects.
Garcia said the investigation is ongoing and a motive for the shooting has not yet been established.
He said that after the shooting, most people left but some remained for Pettigrew’s interment.
