By Jaxon Van Derbeken, Staff Writer
Copyright 2007 San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO -- The state prison camp escapee who allegedly shot and killed San Francisco police Officer Bryan Tuvera last month apparently committed suicide and was not killed by Tuvera’s partner, authorities said Tuesday.
Police Chief Heather Fong has said Marlon Ruff, 33, was killed in a confrontation Dec. 22 after Ruff fired and Tuvera’s partner shot at him in a Sunset District garage.
Officials charged with investigating the incident have made no announcements about the findings of the autopsy on Ruff, which has been completed.
“The case is still under investigation and the manner and cause of death are still pending,” said Stephen Gelman, administrator for the chief medical examiner’s office.
Sources familiar with the case say it appears based on preliminary evidence that Ruff was wounded in the leg and then shot himself under the chin.
“He just ended it all,” said one official with knowledge of the case, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is continuing.
Ruff walked away from a state prison fire camp in Humboldt County in February 2005 after being sentenced to six years for the strong-armed robbery of an armored-car guard. Police said he was suspected in a number of recent robberies and burglaries in the southwestern part of the city.
Officers spotted him on the street Dec. 22, and Tuvera and his partner chased him on foot to a home on the 1600 block of 25th Avenue. Ruff ran into the garage and closed the door behind him, police said. Tuvera, 28, was ambushed when he followed into the door, police said.
Tuvera’s partner fired through the door, wounding Ruff in the leg, authorities said.
Police have not identified the partner. A recent state Supreme Court decision grants confidentiality in a broad range of police disciplinary cases.
“I’m not sure how it happened, but the important thing for us now is that he is dead, so we don’t have to relive another Isaac Espinoza,” said Gary Delagnes, president of the Police Officers Association.
Police have been waiting anxiously for a verdict in the trial of the man accused of the April 2004 killing of Espinoza, a Bayview station officer. The jury deciding the fate of the defendant, 23-year-old David Hill, completed its seventh day of deliberations Tuesday.