Shooting on Las Vegas-area freeway was apparent ambush by Hells Angels on rival Vagos biker gang, police say
A Memorial Day weekend shooting on a Las Vegas-area freeway was an apparent ambush by Hells Angels members on rival Vagos biker gang members returning from a veterans cemetery ride, according to a police report made public Tuesday.
Richard John Devries, who police identified as the Las Vegas Hells Angels chapter president, and club recruits Russell Smith and Stephen Alo were arrested late Sunday, several hours after the shooting on U.S. 95, according to Henderson, Nevada police reports.
At least six of the seven people taken to hospitals with wounds or injuries following the midday Sunday gunfire were Vagos members or affiliates, the report said. They were riding motorcycles back to Las Vegas after stops at Hoover Dam and the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.
Accounts of the shooting indicate the Hells Angels pulled alongside the Vagos and started kicking, trying to knock them over, reports CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV.
"Then one of the Hells Angels OMG riders stood up on their motorcycle and started shooting at one of the Vagos OMG riders," according to an arrest report.
A person police identified as an anonymous witness provided video showing three men wearing Hells Angels attire riding up to the Vagos group - including one who appeared to have an object in his left hand - before shots were fired.
Police said "multiple" spent bullet casings were found strewn for more than a mile along the freeway.
It wasn't clear from the police narrative if anyone in the Vagos group fired weapons or if all the people who were reported sustained gunshot wounds.
Two were hospitalized in critical condition, according to a police statement issued Monday that said a seventh person involved in the shooting arrived at a hospital with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening.
Police didn't provide an update Tuesday of the conditions of the injured.
Devries, 66; Smith, 46 and Alo, 26, remained jailed on $380,000 bail pending court appearances on multiple attempted murder, conspiracy, battery and weapon charges.
Jail and court records didn't immediately reflect court dates or if the men had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. Several attorneys who've represented Hells Angels and Vagos members in criminal cases in Las Vegas in recent years didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press.
The freeway remained closed for more five hours during an investigation that also involved Las Vegas and Boulder City police and the Nevada Highway Patrol, according to the Henderson police reports.
Police said video obtained Sunday morning at a coffee shop in Boulder City and later from a dashboard camera of a police vehicle on a highway in Boulder City showed Devries, Smith and Alo among "multiple members of the Hells Angels ... prior to the shooting call."
Cellphone GPS location data put the three men together on U.S. 95 after the shooting, the reports said.