LIBERTY, Ill. -- For the second time in five months, a Liberty motorcycle club is in the news, and that has some in the eastern Adams County town worried.
"I wasn't (worried) before," said a neighbor who declined to be identified. "The old group was really nice. I don't know about these new guys.
"Any time you have a shooting, you are scared."
Adams County Sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting at the Midwest Percenters Clubhouse, 601 S. Main, at 5:55 a.m. Saturday. Two people, a 34-year-old white male and a 55-year-old white male, were transported to Blessing Hospital with what Adams County Sheriff Brent Fischer said were non-life threatening injuries. Michael Angelo Gomez, 41, of Quincy was taken into custody in rural Liberty at 7:25 a.m. and charged with attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated battery.
In late May, four men were taken into custody at the club and later arrested in connection with an armed robbery of two male Quincy motorcyclists. A semi-automatic handgun and a loaded sawed-off shotgun were seized at the club during the investigation.
All of that activity has some neighbors on edge. The neighbor, a life-long Liberty resident, said her boyfriend heard "five or six shots" as he was getting ready to go to work on Saturday morning.
"He told me to lock the doors," she said.
A man who was at the Ayerco station across the street from the club headquarters when the shooting occurred thought he heard something happening.
"It was like hitting a hammer on a pipe," he said. "It happened four or five times. (The store clerk) said she heard some people arguing outside earlier. She had me go out there, but I didn't hear any yelling when I went out.
"About a half hour later one of the club guys came in and said two guys got shot. He said one of them got grazed in the head and the other was shot twice. He didn't seem like it was any big deal."
The man, who had stopped at the gas station before
going to work at a nearby feed mill, doesn't fear the club members.
"They don't have any guns over there anyway," he said. "They took them all away from them (after the May incident)."
The man said that the shooter was outside the club north of the building and fired into the back of the structure, which is at the corner of South Main and Pittsfield. Bullet holes were visible in a glass door at the rear of the club. Adams County Sheriff's deputies used a metal detector to search an area behind the building during their investigation Saturday morning.
A portion of the parking lot north of the building was roped off with crime scene tape. One car and one van were in the parking lot.
By Saturday afternoon, the club was open again. The police tape was removed. Several motorcycles were parked in front of the building and one of the garage doors on the front of the former service station was open.
According to the group's website, the Midwest Percenters were founded in Liberty in 1965 by Bud Goodwin.
"We are an independent and self-supporting club," the website says. "We are not 1%ers as many have asked. ... The club has changed names over the 40 plus years since its start with each name change and the colors have changed as well. Throughout the years the club has maintained its main reason for its its existence, BROTHERHOOD!"
According to the American Motorcyclist Association, 99 percent of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens while the other 1 percent are outlaws, which is what "we are not 1%ers" refers to.
The woman said the club has been headquartered at its current location for two years.
"The first year or so, they never bothered anything," she said. "I don't know what has happened."
-- dobrien©whig.com/221-3370
http://www.whig.com/story/19933554/activity-at-motorcycle-club-has-liberty-residents-concerned
"They don't have any guns over there anyway," he said. "They took them all away from them (after the May incident)."
The man said that the shooter was outside the club north of the building and fired into the back of the structure, which is at the corner of South Main and Pittsfield. Bullet holes were visible in a glass door at the rear of the club. Adams County Sheriff's deputies used a metal detector to search an area behind the building during their investigation Saturday morning.
A portion of the parking lot north of the building was roped off with crime scene tape. One car and one van were in the parking lot.
By Saturday afternoon, the club was open again. The police tape was removed. Several motorcycles were parked in front of the building and one of the garage doors on the front of the former service station was open.
According to the group's website, the Midwest Percenters were founded in Liberty in 1965 by Bud Goodwin.
"We are an independent and self-supporting club," the website says. "We are not 1%ers as many have asked. ... The club has changed names over the 40 plus years since its start with each name change and the colors have changed as well. Throughout the years the club has maintained its main reason for its its existence, BROTHERHOOD!"
According to the American Motorcyclist Association, 99 percent of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens while the other 1 percent are outlaws, which is what "we are not 1%ers" refers to.
The woman said the club has been headquartered at its current location for two years.
"The first year or so, they never bothered anything," she said. "I don't know what has happened."
-- dobrien©whig.com/221-3370
http://www.whig.com/story/19933554/activity-at-motorcycle-club-has-liberty-residents-concerned