07/26/2011
By DAVID CASTELLON
A man was shot to death Monday morning while waiting for a ride to work outside his home northeast of Exeter.
Neighbors said [name withheld], 30, was a field worker who was usually out waiting to be picked up for work at that time, about 5:45 a.m.
Later that afternoon, Elias Alberto Zurita Ramos, 23, of Lindsay was arrested on suspicion of murdering [name withheld], the Tulare County Sheriff's Department reported.
The department had also searched Ramos' home.
The shooting occurred on Eaton Road, just a few yards from Highway 198, where a small cluster of homes are located.
Kerry Dalberg, who lives nearby, said he was asleep when he heard a boom. "I thought it was a wreck," he said.
He said he and others went outside to see what happened and saw [name withheld]. He had walked a few yards from the place where he was shot to the front door of his home and collapsed. He said a woman there was pressing a towel to wounds to his chest.
"He was saying 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die,' " Dalberg said. He was also telling some of the people around him that he loved them, he added.
[name withheld] was taken by ambulance to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, where he was pronounced dead at about 6:45 a.m.
A sheriff's report states that [name withheld] was shot multiple times in the upper body by someone who either drove up near him or approached him on foot.
The shooting doesn't appear to be gang-related, the report states.
[name withheld] is listed on the Megan's Law website — with the first name of "[name withheld]" — as a registered sex offender for a 2003 conviction on a charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14. The site states he was released in 2010.
A man at [name withheld]'s home who identified himself as his brother declined to be interviewed Monday.
As for the suspect in the case, a sheriff's press release didn't state how detectives connected Ramos to the killing, where he was located or a possible motive for the shooting.
Detectives were still questioning him late Monday afternoon.
Anyone with information that could help investigators is asked to call 800-808-0488. Anonymous tips also can be called or sent by text message to 725-4194. They also can be emailed to tcso@tipnow.com.
