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HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — A capturing that authorities say concerned rival Hells Angels and Vagos bike gang members on a Las Vegas-area freeway could have been retaliation for the killing of a person a number of weeks in the past in Southern California, a prosecutor stated Thursday.
Danielle Pieper Chio, a chief deputy Clark County district legal professional, revealed the potential hyperlink throughout the arraignment in suburban Henderson of three alleged Hells Angels members within the Memorial Day weekend capturing. Police say one is the Las Vegas chapter president and the opposite two have been Hells Angels recruits.
Outdoors court docket, Pieper Chio cited the April 23 capturing loss of life of James Vincent Dickson, 32, throughout a heavy steel live performance at a bar within the California metropolis of San Bernardino. Information reviews stated 4 different individuals have been wounded, together with a member of the band that was taking part in on the time. Pieper Chio stated Dickson was a Hells Angels member.
“The allegation is that Vagos hit a Hells Angels member (in San Bernardino),” the prosecutor stated, “and that makes this presumably a retaliatory capturing.”
San Bernardino police, together with detectives assigned to Dickson’s slaying, declined Thursday to remark about their investigation and the potential hyperlink between Dickson’s loss of life and the gunfire close to Las Vegas. No arrests have been reported within the San Bernardino case.
Henderson police stated six Vagos members have been wounded and Pieper Chio stated a seventh one who confirmed up at a hospital with gunshot wounds attributed to the mid-day Sunday capturing was a Hells Angels member.
Pieper Chio didn’t say whether or not that man’s wounds have been inflicted by Vagos members. No Vagos members have been charged with a criminal offense within the capturing.
Richard John Devries, 66, and membership recruits Russell Smith, 46, and Stephen Alo, 26, have been arraigned Thursday on a number of tried homicide, conspiracy, battery and weapon costs that might get them many years in jail.
Henderson magistrate David Gibson saved bail for every man at $380,000 pending one other court docket look June 14.
In court docket, Pieper Chio cited retaliation as a potential motive and stated the Vagos members have been using bikes again to Las Vegas after stops on the Hoover Dam, in Arizona, and on the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder Metropolis.
An individual police recognized as an nameless witness supplied video exhibiting three males sporting Hells Angels apparel using as much as the Vagos members earlier than photographs have been fired, in accordance with police reviews.
Pieper Chio stated greater than a dozen photographs have been fired on U.S. 95 in Henderson, and stray bullets struck a close-by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints constructing and a parked automobile. Police stated spent bullet casings have been discovered strewn for greater than a mile (1.6 kilometer) alongside the freeway.
Devries’ legal professional, Richard Schonfeld, declined exterior court docket to substantiate whether or not his consumer leads the Hells Angels in Las Vegas. Schonfeld advised the choose that Devries is a navy veteran with no prison report, and there was no proof that he fired a weapon. The legal professional stated he intends to file paperwork looking for to cut back Devries’ bail to an quantity he can put up.
Protection legal professional Thomas Pitaro, representing Smith and Alo, additionally sought decrease bail, saying he doubted they may increase $380,000.
Gibson cited the stray photographs and stated he felt the three defendants posed a hazard to the neighborhood.
“I’m fearful that one thing goes to occur,” the choose stated, noting the gunfire came about “on a freeway I take, in a neighborhood that I reside.”
Henderson police on Thursday issued a public request for witnesses to the capturing to contact investigators.
Schonfeld and Pitaro have represented Hells Angels members in earlier instances in Las Vegas together with state and federal prison instances stemming from a lethal on line casino brawl with rival Mongols bike gang members at a Laughlin on line casino throughout a biker rally in April 2002.
Vagos members even have confronted federal prosecution in Nevada in recent times, however the group averted being branded as a global prison enterprise following the killing of a rival Hells Angels chief in a 2011 on line casino shootout within the northern Nevada metropolis of Sparks.
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