OFF THE WIRE
BY: Brian Duggan
rgj.com
While Sparks police continued their investigation into Friday’s fatal shooting between rival motorcycle gangs inside the John Ascuaga’s Nugget, Washoe County’s counterterrorism unit said it had no intelligence indicating a shootout was about to take place that night.
Killed in Friday’s incident was Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, 51, president of the San Jose, chapter of the Hells Angels and a heavy equipment operator for the city of San Jose. Two members of the Vagos gang, Leonard Ramirez, 45, and Diego Garcia, 28, were wounded in the gunfire Friday night.
The only man arrested immediately after the shooting — Cesar Villagrana, 36, a Hells Angel member from California — was being held Monday on $500,000 bail at the Washoe County jail in Reno. He faces a court appearance on felony assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a stolen firearm charges.
It was not immediately clear if Villagrana had a lawyer.
Also on Monday, police identified Shane Smith, 40, a member of the Vagos motorcycle gang, as the victim of a Saturday morning drive-by shooting. Sparks police said a dark blue BMX 3 series pulled up beside up and shot him in the stomach as he was walking on Victorian Avenue, not far from the Nugget. His condition was not released.
Police said the two shootings have not been definitively linked, though both prompted Sparks officials to declare a state of emergency before canceling the remainder of the annual Street Vibrations rally, which attracts thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts to the region.
A state of emergency gives a city the power to enforce a curfew, use private property to stage emergency responses and call on the state for additional resources, such as the Nevada National Guard, which Sparks did not do. The declaration lasted 24 hours starting 5 p.m. Saturday.
Video shows crowd seeking cover
Deputy Sparks Police Chief Brian Allen said Monday that casino surveillance video won’t be made public until investigators complete the painstaking work of identifying about 60 Vagos and 12 Hells Angels amid a crowd of several hundred people gambling and partying. Members of the crowd suddenly dove for cover when gunfire erupted.
“We don’t want to sensationalize it. We don’t want to influence the groups. We don’t want to have something happen somewhere else,” Allen said in an interview. “A lot of the players are from out of the state and out of the region. If you look at it historically, there’ve been tensions between these two groups. But we’re still looking at what exactly set off this specific incident.”
In Arizona, more than two dozen members of the rival groups were arrested in August 2010 after a shootout left five people wounded in Chino Valley, north of Prescott.
In California, an annual organized crime report from the state attorney general calls long-standing tensions between the Hells Angels and the Vagos “particularly poignant.” It cited instances in which the Hells Angels have forced Vagos out of chapters in Hells Angels hotspots.
It’s not the first time a motorcycle rally has turned deadly in Nevada.
According to a 2002 story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, court documents and gaming officials showed Southern Nevada law enforcement had intelligence that a fight was about to break out between the Hells Angels and Mongols motorcycle gangs during the River Run motorcycle rally in Laughlin, Nev., that year.
Police warned casino operators, according to the story, about the potential for violence before the event turned fatal when a shootout ensued inside the Harrah’s Laughlin casino, leaving three bikers dead.
Law enforcement officials in Northern Nevada, meanwhile, said no such information existed prior to Friday’s violence that would have alerted them of a melee about to erupt between the Hells Angels and Vagos gangs.
Washoe County Assistant Sheriff Marshall Emerson, who heads the Northern Nevada counterterrorism center, said the unit collects information preceding any large gathering of people in the county to see if there is a potential for violence.
“In this particular case there was no credible information to indicate the event that had occurred was about to occur,” Emerson said. “If there was we would have taken immediate action to prevent that.”
The U.S. Department of Justice describes the Hells Angels and the Vagos as “outlaw motorcycle gangs,” that are, “highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking.” The organizations, instead, refer to themselves as motorcycle “clubs.”
Reaction in Sparks
Sparks officials call them “1 percenters” and not representative of the majority of attendees.
“It was just 1 percent that created the disruptions and the violence that led to the fatality,” said Adam Mayberry, the spokesman for Sparks. “Truly, it is an isolated incident. There’s no way to prevent, 100 percent, an act of violence from occurring.”
Sparks Mayor Geno Martini also called the violence an “isolated incident,” adding the future of Street Vibrations in Sparks is strong.
“I’m sure (Street Vibrations will) come to us with an application and I don’t see why we wouldn’t approve it,” he said, noting there have been concerns in the past over potential violence during Hot August Nights. “It’s always a concern.”
Martini added, “Hopefully this is just a one year isolated incident. If it happens again next year then it’s something we’ll take a harder look at.”
Calls to Roadshows Inc., the company that produces Street Vibrations, were not returned Monday.
While Pettigrew was well known among outlaw motorcycle gangs in the San Jose area, according to the San Jose Mercury News, the police department there had no comment on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation in Sparks as reason for not talking.
However, in an interview with the Mercury News, San Jose Sgt. Larry Day, who has investigated motorcycle gangs, said the fight in Sparks could result in more bloodshed.
“In the outlaw motorcycle gang culture, Jeff Pettigrew was a local icon in San Jose, a very well-respected member within the ranks of the Hells Angels,” Day told the Mercury News. “This incident could definitely result in retaliation against the Vagos, and a full-blown war that may result in deadly violence in San Jose and throughout California.”
— Ken Ritter of the Associated Press contributed to this story
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EARLIER UPDATE:
A member of the Vagos Motorcycle Club has been identified as the victim in a drive-by shooting in Sparks on Saturday morning, one of two incidents that prompted city officials to shut down the Street Vibrations event in the city for the rest of the weekend.
Shane Smith, 40, suffered a gunshot wound while walking on Victorian Avenue, not far from John Ascuaga’s Nugget, where a fight between Vagos club members and Hells Angels escalated into a deadly shooting on Friday night.
Killed in Friday’s incident was Jeffrey Pettigrew, 51, president of the San Jose, chapter of the Hells Angels. Two members of the Vagos gang, Leonard Ramirez, 45, and Diego Garcia, 28, were wounded in the gunfire.
The investigation of the Nugget shooting was ongoing Monday and Sparks Police said no new information was available for release.
Police said the two shooting incidents still have not been definitively linked to each other.
In the case of Smith’s shooting, police are looking for a dark blue BMW 3 series sedan without tinted windows. This information was gained through follow-up interviews with witnesses.
Smith’s medical condition was not released on Monday.
Anyone with information should contact the Sparks Police Department at 353-2225 or Secret Witness at 322-4900. You can also text Secret Witness at 847411, keyword secret.
