Officers called to the Santa Barbara house in the luxury suburb of Hope Ranch found Valerie Lundeen Ely, 62, dead with "multiple stab wounds", the BBC reported. Cameron Ely, 30, was cornered by the police outside the home. The officers deemed him a threat and shot him dead.
There was no report of 81-year-old Ely being injured during the attack, however, the sheriff's office said a disabled elderly man in the home was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
"Deputies searched the residence and surrounding area for Cameron Ely. During the search, the suspect was located outside the home. He posed a threat and in response four deputies fired their service weapons at the suspect, fatally wounding him," the latest Santa Barbara County sheriff's statement reads.
Ron Ely is best known for his role as Tarzan, a fictional character raised by apes in the African jungle from a TV show that aired on NBC between 1966-68 and was based on a 1914 book by Edgar Rice Burroughs.