Biker Shootout Disrupts Small Arizona Town

OFF THE WIRE
Updated: August 22nd, 2010 09:31 AM EDT
BY ELIZABETH ERWIN
Story by kpho.com

CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. --
Dozens of Arizona law enforcement officers flooded into a small community north of Prescott on Saturday after a shooting involving motorcycle gang members.
Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn says four or five people were shot, and one was flown to a Phoenix-area hospital. An unknown number of people have been detained.
Television images show several dozen men and a few women dressed in biker garb outside a rural home in the Chino Valley area with Harley-Davidson motorcycles parked alongside. Heavily armed law enforcement officers watched over them.
Officials tell CBS 5 News two rival motorcycle gangs were involved in a shoot out on a Chino Valley street just after noon Saturday.
Nearby, several dozen police vehicles blocked roadways into the area.
"We heard shots, you know yo hear that little pop pop pop pop sound," said neighbor Stanley Vorce.
It's not what Vorce expected to hear while doing yard work Saturday afternoon.
"We were feeding our horses and just heard some gunfire, and my wife Mary, we hit the dirt and called the cops. They said just stay on the floor," said neighbor Steve Force.
Force lives next door to the gray two-story house at the center of the controversy.
Neighbors tell us the home belongs to the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
"If there's motorcycles and a lot of them they're probably going there, and they use this as kind of a clubhouse," explained Vorce.
Officials said a rival gang hangs out in another house on the street. They said the two got in some sort of fight, and got in an old fashioned shoot-out, right in the middle of the road.
It ended with about a half a dozen bikers cuffed and taken away in Yavapai County Sheriff's Office cars, a crime scene spanning several blocks with bikes taped off and officials trying to piece together the pieces.
They told CBS 5 News four people were shot, two taken to a local hospital, one airlifted to Phoenix and one treated on scene.
Officials wouldn't confirm which gangs were involved, but neighbors are sure Hells Angels was one of them and told CBS 5 News The Vagos Motorcycle Club is probably the other.
CBS 5's helicopter camera took plenty of pictures of jackets with the Vagos green logo on the back.
Fernandez said he doesn't really care who was behind the shootout, he just made sure his wife and horses are out of firing range.
"You think the neighborhood is safe and then something like this happens so, we're going camping," he said.
Officials blocked off about a mile of Yuma Rd. Saturday night, keeping neighbors out of the area. They reassured CBS 5 News the scene was clear and those living nearby were safe.

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