Gunman in Kenwood domestic dispute dies after shooting self, Sonoma County sheriff says

A Kenwood man who shot himself Friday while fleeing law enforcement after shooting another person in a domestic dispute died after he was transported to the hospital, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.

Prior to shooting himself, Randall Allan Farris, 56, was involved in a confrontation with two other people at a remote Kenwood-area residence on the 2000 block of Adobe Canyon Road, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The confrontation was triggered by a recent break-up with one of the two victims, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

It turned violent when Farris brandished a gun in his jacket pocket, telling the two people something to the effect of “which one of you want to die first?” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

One of the two people, fearing for the safety of the other, tried to gain control of the firearm, and Farris shot that person multiple times in the ensuing physical struggle, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office did not identify the two victims, disclose their genders or specify which one had been romantically involved with Farris.

But a Kenwood fire official said Friday that the shooting victim paramedics treated at the home was a man.

That person managed to turn the barrel of the gun toward Farris and fired multiple rounds, striking him twice, the sheriff’s statement said. Sheriff’s officials did not describe the type or caliber of the firearm involved in shooting.

As the fight over the gun unfolded, the uninjured victim drove to a neighbor’s house to call 911. Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call at 2:27 p.m. While responding to the incident, authorities learned Farris had fled in a black Nissan Pathfinder. A sheriff’s deputy and a Santa Rosa police offer later spotted a Nissan SUV with a driver matching Farris’ description near the intersection of Highway 12 and Melita Road.

The officers pulled Farris over on Melita Road near Susan Lane and ordered him to exit the car at gunpoint. Farris got out of the car holding a handgun in his right hand. Officers ordered him to drop the gun, sheriff’s officials said Friday. Law enforcement did not specify the type of firearm on Saturday.

Authorities said Farris did not ever point the gun at the officers. But he refused to drop the weapon, got back into the car and slowly drove away on Melita Road as officers followed him, sheriff’s officials reported.

Moments later, the pursuing officers heard a “pop” they believed to be a gunshot coming from inside the Nissan. The car veered off the road, headed down a culvert through some vegetation and crashed into a house. The crash was forceful enough to deploy the Nissan’s airbags.

Officers found Farris in the driver’s seat, slumped over the steering wheel with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head. They immediately started medical aid, and Farris was alive when he was transported to a local hospital, but he was later pronounced dead there, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Back at the Kenwood home, the male shooting victim was conscious at the time he was reached by paramedics, and he stable when he arrived at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, said Daren Bellach, assistant chief of the Kenwood Fire Protection District. Sheriff’s officials said the victim was expected to recover from injuries sustained in the shooting.

No other details, including the precise nature of the domestic dispute, were immediately available late Saturday.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter ?@thejdmorris.