The Santa Rosa man shot to death early Wednesday outside Third Street Aleworks was at the downtown brew pub with the longtime, live-in girlfriend of the suspect, police said Thursday.
Jack Romero, 33, had met the couple when they were neighbors at an apartment complex behind the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and is believed to have dated the woman during a recent period of estrangement from her boyfriend, Ryan Mitchell Dietz, police said.
Dietz, 29, and Garicka Rush, 31, the mother of Dietz three children, recently had begun living together again, police said.
Dietz found her with Romero at the Aleworks, the two men argued outside and Dietz chased Romero around a corner where Romero was shot and killed, police said.
The startling details surrounding the shooting came into focus Thursday from police and Romero's family, even as family members gathered for a nighttime vigil at the scene of the shooting to grieve his loss.
The suspects in the case are expected in court today to face charges in the shooting death of the former corrections officer and father of two.
Romero's brother, Casey, said he was unaware of a romantic relationship between Rush and his brother, who is separated from his wife.
He also said he was present when Romero's children, age 12 and 14, were interviewed by police. They said they had seen jealous behavior on the part of Dietz, including once when he took a swing at their father and challenged him to fight.
"The guy was known to be very jealous, a very jealous type of guy," Casey Romero said.
The children also said Romero had no romantic interest in Rush, the brother said.
He said Rush drove to the Romero family home Tuesday night to pick up Jack Romero. Family members thought they were headed downtown for coffee or a movie when they left, Casey Romero said.
Instead, Jack Romero, an unemployed private security guard, died at 12:05 a.m. on a walkway of the Comstock Mall near the Third Street Cinema and the corner of D and Second streets.
He had been shot multiple times with a handgun as at least one witness looked on, police said.
Rush, a children's ballet and hip-hop teacher at the Santa Rosa YMCA, was among those who gathered at the scene, police Sgt. Steve Fraga said. She told officers she was looking for her boyfriend, which Fraga said was a reference to Romero, not Dietz.
She said she did not see the shooting, and police have no evidence she did, Fraga said.
But she was otherwise uncooperative despite several hours of questioning at the police station, he said.
Other Aleworks patrons and witnesses outside told police Romero and Rush were together in the brew pub and provided descriptions of the gunman and the silver van that he drove away in, helping investigators piece together a puzzle that implicated Dietz as the shooter even before police were able to speak with Romero's family. The van description also matched one registered to Dietz, Fraga said.
Police records showed a domestic violence history involving Dietz and Rush, Fraga said, and witnesses identified him from a photo officers provided.
Detectives later went to the home of Romero's grandfather, where Romero and his two children have been living, and obtained additional evidence of friction between Dietz and Romero, Casey Romero said.
Dietz, meanwhile, went to his job Wednesday morning at San Rafael-based Integrity Electric Inc. where he is an electrician, calling first to say he would be a little late, owner Jerry Thompson said.
He arrived about 20 minutes late and completed his 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift as usual, Thompson said.
Thompson said he'd employed Dietz since he responded to a Craigslist ad in March and described him as a skilled electrician, a diligent worker and a good employee.
So when Santa Rosa police detectives arrived Wednesday and said Dietz was wanted as a murder suspect, "I was shocked," Thompson said. Dietz had passed a background check that would have turned up any criminal record or blemishes on his driving record before he was hired, he said.
Although not well-known to the rest of the staff, "he seemed very even-keeled," Thompson said. "I did not see any swing of emotions or ups and downs. I never heard him complain about anything or anyone."
Detectives were waiting for Dietz when he returned to the company parking lot in a company van at the end of the day, Thompson said, and was arrested.
Authorities were looking Thursday morning for the gun used in the shooting, Fraga said.
Police believe Rush had gone home after questioning, found some additional ammunition for Dietz's handgun and scattered it behind some businesses, destroying evidence, Fraga said.
Rush, who also works at the YMCA welcome desk, did not show up for her shift or for her ballet class Wednesday, YMCA CEO David Brown said.
"That's really all we know about it," Brown said. "This whole news is just shocking, and we know nothing more than that."
Rush, who has four children, was arrested at the couple's Amethyst Way home off Kawana Springs Road in Santa Rosa, police said. She is suspected of being an accessory to murder and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. Dietz was being held without bail, authorities said.
Both were scheduled to make their first court appearances at 1:30 p.m. today, jail personnel said.
>The family is setting up an account to benefit Jack Romero's children, whose mother, Lynette Romero, is battling leukemia, he said.
"His kids are hurt very bad," Casey Romero said. "It's very painful to watch them."
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