Heavy security marked the funeral over the weekend of a Hells Angel biker and enforcer shot to death while the motorcycle club was laying to rest another member of the group last month.
Members of the The Hells Angels motorcycle club gathered to remember Steve Tausan, 52, at Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose over the weekend, and police say they’re still looking for the man who shot and killed him.
“They way it went down is not a good thing,” said Richard Holly, a friend of Tausan’s attending the funeral. “Sad that it had to go that way. Steve was a very well-known person, very respected amongst the community. A good family man.”
The last time around, and Tausan’s last day alive, came at a funeral two weeks ago when thousands of bikers gathered at Oak Hill for the burial of Hells Angels president Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew who was murdered at a Nevada casino during a confrontation with members of rival biker gang, The Vagos. During Pettigrew’s funeral, the man suspected of killing Tausan, Steve Ruiz, made good his escape and has still not been captured.
Tausan was laid to rest on a hilltop on the other side of the cemetery from the graveside where he was murdered two Saturdays ago.
The police said they were trying to prepare for the worst.
“This time, we were still focusing on the fact that there might be outside groups coming in to cause problems, although we had no credible information that would occur,” said Jose Garcia of the San Jose Police Department. “We also believe that it wasn’t beyond possibility that there would be friction among the same group.”