OFF THE WIRE
Source: local12.com
We now know the identity of the Iron Horseman who was shot and killed in a gun battle with police over the weekend. His name is Harold Walter Seavey. He's been living in the East End. He's originally from Portland, Maine.
Local 12's Rich Jaffe spent much of the day talking with Seavey's family and law enforcement.
As often happens with guys in motorcycle gangs, Harold Seavey was known by a couple of different names. His family knew him as Butch, but on the street he was known as "Dirty Harry."
Investigators in multiple different agencies have been aware of Harold Seavey's presence in the Cincinnati area for quite a while. He's been here for four or five months and has been living most recently in a house on Kellogg Avenue in California. Police searched his residence this morning. It's just a couple blocks away from the Iron Horseman clubhouse on Eldorado Street.
Seavey was a national enforcer for the Iron Horseman motorcycle club. Enforcers are the muscle men who frequently do the clubs dirty work.
Seavey was on guard duty at the door of J.D.'s Honky Tonk Saturday evening when police showed up. Moments later, bullets were flying. Officers wanted to talk to the assembled group of Iron Horsemen to find out what they were doing at the bar. When the smoke cleared, Harold Seavey was dead, two officers injured by gunfire, one Iron Horseman was transported to the hospital.
Another Horseman, Lew Erskine, was arrested on a charge he violated the states concealed carry law.
The bikers presence at J.D's was a point of concern because the bar is just a few blocks away from the clubhouse of what's becoming a rival gang, the Detroit Highwaymen. While J.D.'s is not a biker bar, per se, Highwaymen are also frequent customers there... and word was circulating that an attack on the Iron Horsemen was a possibility.
Seavey's brother tells me he's been in Cincinnati on "vacation..." and that while his brother is indeed an Iron Horseman, it's more a social club in Portland, Maine. He tells me his brother was a marine who served in Vietnam, and the father of three. He also says Harold Seavey had a heart of gold, joining other Iron Horseman around the holidays to distribute toys for tots, and helping the homeless.
John Seavey says he can't explain why his brother opened fire on police, saying his death is a shock to the entire family. The big question that remains, is why did Seavey open fire? And it's a question that may never really be answered.
In a conversation with me this afternoon, Assistant Cincinnati Police Chief Vince Demasi emphasized again, that while the undercover officers on the scene had masks on, they were clearly identified as police officers, all the way down to badges hanging around their necks. He also points out that all the other Iron Horsemen were on the ground, and Seavey was the only one shooting at them.
The two Cincinnati Police officers shot Saturday are out of the hospital. The department says it will not release their names because they work undercover.
Monday's story:
Investigators now say only one member of the Iron Horsemen motorcycle gang fired at police Saturday night. That biker was fatally shot by police in the ensuing gunfight. Two police officers, shot during the gun battle, were released from the hospital this morning. Another member of the motorcycle gang was wounded... and one was in court today.
Local 12's Rich Jaffe was also in court.
Investigators from across the area are exceptionally quiet about this situation today, no doubt because there's an ongoing investigation into the groups activities here. However, police tell me that having interviewed many people at the scene, no one had any doubt that the men coming through the door were police. They were all wearing tactical raid vests that say police in big bold letters.
The man who opened fire was from a Horsemen chapter in Maine, and had a national reputation. One member of the group, Lew Erskine, was in court this morning, for illegally having a firearm in an establishment that serves alcohol. A member of the Iron Horsemen motorcycle club, Lew Erskine has no criminal history. He also has, at least temporarily, a perfectly legal concealed carry permit. Arrested Saturday evening after the shootout in Camp Washington, Erskine is not charged with shooting at police. However, he allegedly violated the state's concealed carry law by having, not one, but two guns with him, in the bar. Over the weekend, he was released on his own recognizance, and today the judge continued that. Erskine lives in Bethel and today, he had a number of people in court and just outside of court supporting him.
The Iron Horsemen began in Cincinnati back in the mid-60's and are one of the more prominent outlaw motorcycle gangs in the country. Police say J-D's Honkey Tonk is not known as a biker bar and they don't consider the bar a problem.
