L.A. Officer’s Son Arrested in Shooting

The son-in-law of an LAPD sergeant was being kept alive on life support Wednesday night after he was allegedly shot by the policeman’s son during an argument at the family’s Moorpark home.

Jason Weaver, 26, of the San Fernando Valley, had been taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks in critical condition after being operated on at Simi Valley Hospital for several gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Weaver’s brother-in-law, Paul Myers, 30, was taken into custody shortly after 4 p.m. outside his father’s hillside home at 14312 Clemson St. in Moorpark on suspicion of shooting Weaver, said Eric Nishimoto, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

A motive was unclear, but several neighbors said they heard the pair arguing in an open garage about a video game before shots rang out.

“He [Myers] was screaming that he did it in self-defense. He was saying that the guy was going to bash his head in and he had to do it,” said a neighbor who asked not to be identified.

Myers is the son of James “Jim” N. Myers, a sergeant assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division in Northridge, authorities said. Jim Myers was not home when the shooting occurred, but arrived soonafter from work.

According to authorities, Paul Myers and his brother-in-law argued inside the three-car garage before Myers shot Weaver several times.

Weaver fell to the ground a couple of feet outside the garage door. Several neighbors said they heard four or five shots and then screaming.

At the time of the shooting, Jim Myers’ wife, Bonnie Myers, was home with two young boys believed to be her grandchildren. It was unclear if there were additional witnesses, but Bonnie Myers went into the garage after Weaver was shot, neighbors said.

“I heard her shouting, ‘My son-in-law has been shot and he’s going to die,’ ” said the unidentified neighbor.

After Weaver was transferred to the Thousand Oaks hospital, Simi hospital spokeswoman JoLynn Hinger said: “He’s in critical condition, and if he’s in critical you can assume he’s not stable.”

Neither Hinger nor authorities would say where the shots hit Weaver, but a neighbor said he was struck at least once in the head.

After the incident, Paul Myers--who had been living at the residence--remained at the scene and was standing outside when deputies arrived, Nishimoto said. He was being interviewed Wednesday night at the department’s Thousand Oaks station and had not yet been booked into jail.

Nishimoto said the gun used in the shooting had not been recovered, but that it was thought to be in the garage or in the house and that detectives were securing a search warrant to look for the weapon.

Nishimoto also said detectives would be investigating whether the weapon was owned by Jim Myers.

More than two dozen deputies responded to the incident and used yellow crime-scene tape to rope off the scene on both sides of the house. Neighbors and media were kept about three houses away.

Jim Myers declined to be interviewed. He stood outside his home near a patch of blooming lilies and held one of his grandsons.

Jim Myers’ daughter, Christina, is married to Weaver, a car detailer, and the couple live in the San Fernando Valley, according to Dave Blackmore, a neighbor.

The Weavers had lived at Myers’ home until six months ago, Blackmore said. Inside the garage were two baby strollers and an early-model Mercedes-Benz.

The two-story beige stucco home is in a small community that sits on a hilltop about a mile from Moorpark College overlooking Simi Valley.

The unidentified neighbor said Weaver and his wife often argued while living at the Moorpark house and that deputies had responded to the home at least once in the last year.

Wolcott is a Times Community News reporter; Metcalfe is a Times staff writer. Milo Peinemann, a Times Community News reporter, also contributed to this story.