California, Biker gang accused of confronting group in SUV

BY: Connor Ramey
Source: freelancenews.com
A Labor Day celebration turned terrifying Saturday for a group of family and friends after the Professional Bull Riders event. While traveling to a house across the road from the Bolado Park, they were held at gunpoint by suspected members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, who are in the middle of a violent conflict with the Hell's Angels, authorities confirmed.

The reported incident prompted Sheriff Curtis Hill to lash out at biker gangs and also at prospects of a revived Hollister Motorcycle Rally, referring to the tradition as a "pain in the (expletive)" and noting how supporters of the idea need to "cut that (expletive) out" due to the "criminal activities" such groups promote.

City officials in 2008 canceled the Hollister Motorcycle Rally with the high cost of law enforcement and lacking revenues to offset it.

Saturday's incident occurred after the fourth annual PBR event at Bolado Park. The sheriff's office knew before the incident that the Vagos members were using Bolado Park for a Labor Day weekend party, so the department had been paying closer attention to the area, Hill said. The Vagos gang members were on high alert due to a recent violent confrontation with the Hell's Angels in Arizona, the sheriff said.

Out-of-county resident Terri Beam, three teenage girls (including Beam's daughter) and Beam's two adult sons were pulling into the driveway of her father's home around 10:30 p.m., Beam said in a phone interview with the Free Lance. Eight people pointed knives and guns at the Chevy Tahoe while demanding them to get out of the vehicle.

Beam said the bikers did not demand money or anything else, and only made them get out of the sport utility vehicle. It is unclear what motive the suspected Vagos members may have had in targeting those particular residents.

The men stopped the Chevy Tahoe in the driveway and pointed guns at each person in the car, screaming profanities at them, Beam said. The bikers ordered the passengers to leave the vehicle.

Eventually, the bikers allowed the SUV to pass after "several minutes of pleading," she said. The family called 911 and told dispatchers about the incident.

Sheriff's office spokesman Lt. Roy Iler said the victims of the incident called dispatchers, but requested that deputies did not make contact with them. Iler said investigators followed up by calling the reporting party to try and obtain more details.

"They were not really cooperating fully," he said.

Said the sheriff: "I can't send my deputies out there (to confront the suspected culprits) to blow things up on a misdemeanor when the crime wasn't committed in our presence."

The issue? Without a report or witness, deputies would have no suspects, Hill said.

Beam and the vehicle passengers didn't know they needed to press charges for the sheriff's deputies to search the area, Beam said. Those in the car didn't want to identify the biker gang members who pointed the guns due to fear of retribution, Beam said.

A lot of the tension, meanwhile, may have been rooted in a shooting incident last month in Chino Valley, Ariz.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Vagos gang has about 300 members in 24 chapters in California, Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon. They are known to produce and distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, according to the DOJ, which claims the group has been involved in murder and weapons violations.

An Aug. 21 shootout there between members of the Vagos and Hell's Angels led to 27 arrests and five bullet-related injuries, with nearly 50 rounds fired, Hill said.

"I spent my whole weekend worrying that we had Vagos in town and they were in a battle with the Hell's Angels," Hill said.

The sheriff's office contacted the bikers earlier in the weekend, after the park manager asked them to, and warned the members, Hill said. The bikers responded by saying they won't take part in illegal activities.

"If I have a biker in Hollister breaking the law he is going to jail," Hill said. "Honestly, they all need to go to prison - all of them."

But the issue with the incident at Bolado Park was that the family wanted to know why the space was rented out to the biker gang in the first place, Hill said.

"This is an unfortunate situation that a law-abiding citizen had to have someone point a gun in their face, but this a free country and they have a right to be at that park," Hill said. "This is why the biker rally is a pain in the (expletive)."

A resident out of San Francisco, who told the park manager he was going to have a large group of people at the park, rented out the area across the road from Bolado Park, Hill said. That resident turned out to be a Vago member, he said.

Hill continually referenced the downside of a biker rally in relation to the incident.

"This is why the biker rally needs to be shut down forever," Hill said. "There is always going to be a criminal element. And all the people in Hollister who want to bring it back need to cut that (expletive) out."

Hill said that if the group inside the Chevy Tahoe wanted to report the incident and wanted to identify suspects, the department "would have been there in heartbeat."

"At some point you have to say I need to do something," Hill said.


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Connor Ramey
Connor Ramey is a staff writer for the Free Lance. You can reach him by email or at (831) 637-5566.