New Details Released In Biker Gang Shootout

Bikers' Gunfight Rattles Rural Ariz. Neighborhood
CBS 5 News Exclusive: Witness Caught In Gunfire
Elizabeth Erwin
Reporter, KPHO.com
UPDATED: 7:07 am MST August 23, 2010

CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. -- Yavapai County Sheriff's officials on Sunday tried to piece together the circumstances involving a shootout between two rival motorcycle gangs in the middle of a rural Arizona road a day earlier.

At the same time, neighbors of the gang houses said they realized this could just be the beginning.

"Yesterday I got caught in gunfire by two biker gangs," Jon Humen said.

It's something he never expected to see play out in the rural setting.

"I moved here from Phoenix to get away from this," he said.

But Sunday when he heard a "pop, pop, pop" he thought, "Somebody was throwing rocks at our window. I realized there were bikers down there with guns shooting," Humen said.

Witnesses told CBS 5 News a group of Hells Angels members were having a party at a house on Yuma Road when a group of Vagos bikers rode by.

That's when the Angels started shooting, witnesses said.

They said a couple of the Vagos bikers dropped their motorcycles and started firing back, while the rest of the group rode uphill before returning fire.

"There were people running up and down the street. Gunfire went on for at least 15-20 minutes," Humen remembered.

"I saw the guy get shot in his belly behind the propane tank, like two feet away from it," Humen said.

Officials arrested 27 bikers, and located at least 50 shell casings.

"You know a lot about the Hells Angels, you hear a lot but unless you hear something specifically about them, you don't really think they're going to do anything," Humen explained.

He's lived next door to the Angels house at 2640 Yuma Drive for awhile now, and said they've owned the place for years.

But within the last year the Vagos bought a house just up the block at 2920 Yuma Drive.

That's when the trouble started, that a turf war was brewing, neighbors said, and it was just a matter of time before something like the shooting happened.

"I'm kind of nervous now because I know there's always going to be, now that I know another one moved in, there's gonna be some tense relationships going on between them," said Humen.