Jere Melo, a former mayor and current city councilman in Fort Bragg, California, was shot and killed last Saturday while he was out investigating reports of a weed-growing operation in the forests surrounding his town (Melo also worked for a timber company.) The main suspect in the case: Aaron Bassler (pictured), local crazy person. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Earlier this year, Bassler was pepper sprayed, shocked with a Taser and arrested after crashing a truck into a Fort Bragg middle school tennis court, according to an article in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News.

In 2009, Bassler faced federal charges after allegedly throwing packages into the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on four occasions, bringing out a bomb squad each time. The packages contained drawings of red stars and writings that referred to the "Martian military" and Chinese weapons designs, investigators said.

Aaron Bassler is innocent until proven guilty.

[Photo: Mendocino County Sheriff]