There still have been no charges filed or statements issued from the Jacksonville, Florida State Attorney’s Office regarding the murder of a Black Piston patch holder named Zachariah “Nas T” Tipton 48 days ago. So this Friday, on the 50th day, friends and relatives of Tipton’s plan to hold another public demonstration in hopes that somebody somewhere might be persuaded to give a damn.
Tipton was shot two or three times in the face and once in the side of the head by a member of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club at the conclusion of what numerous sources have called an “intentional confrontation.”
The Iron Order
The Black Pistons are affiliated with the American Outlaws Association and since its inception the Iron Order has been at “war” with the Outlaws. A book by club president Ray “Izod” Lubesky titled IOMC – Birth of a Motorcycle Club is a virtual chronicle of armed confrontations between members of the Iron Order and the Outlaws. Lubesky presents himself as a former Outlaw hang around who joined a new club when he moved to Louisville.The new club was founded by disgruntled members of the Blue Knights Motorcycle Club and a United States Secret Service Agent. The Blue Knights split away because the Blue Knights, according to Lubesky, “conduct their clubs more like the Elks club with motorcycles.” Lubesky wanted to join a club more like the Outlaws with whom he had ridden in Atlanta. “In fact,” he writes. “with some of these law enforcement motorcycle clubs there is a very fine line that separates them from the 1%er and other MCs. I consider these other law enforcement motorcycle clubs to be MCs because they follow the same traditions we do in the MC world. As Fat Man was describing this new club and its origins, I thought it was one of these hard core law enforcement motorcycle clubs. It sounded interesting to me.” The new club was the Iron Order.
The Iron Order under Lubesky has simultaneously branded itself as a “law abiding motorcycle club” and as a violent club that celebrates chapters with “clubhouse whores” and encourages its members to carry guns. According to a high ranking Iron Order officer, more than half of all club members are active duty military members or sworn peace officers.
June 26
According to multiple sources, at least eight and possibly as many as 12 Iron Order members were at Nippers Beach Grille awaiting the arrival of three or four Black Pistons in the moments before Tipton died. According to multiple, non-police sources most of the Iron Order members were never questioned by police.According to a source who told The Aging Rebel he was sitting on Nippers patio, “There were at least two tables full of Iron Order. A phone call was received and calls made at the Iron Order tables. Then an Iron Order member took a prospect and went to the parking lot with the prospect in tow. Then the shooting started. About six to eight Iron Order removed their vests, jumped the railing to the road and left. Three members of the Iron Order stayed on scene with their vests on. There was only one Iron Order prospect present.”
The source was detained by police until one the next morning, asked if he saw the actual shooting and then released without further questioning.
Police told the first Jacksonville reporters on the scene that Tipton had been shot four times in the face and head. Multiple sources have said they heard an initial volley of either three or four shots followed, after a brief pause, by two more shots. One news video (below) shows five, orange, spray painted circles of the type used to mark expended cartridges at crime scenes.
Twelve days after the shooting a Jacksonville Beach police spokesman issued a statement to clarify “a great deal of misinformation circulating in the public” about Tipton’s murder. “To the best of our knowledge, no one directly involved in this incident is or ever was a law enforcement officer,” the spokesman wrote. “This was a dispute between members and/or associates of two motorcycle clubs that ended in violence. The deceased was struck by one round and died as a result of that wound.”
The statement was issued 36 days ago. The organizers of Friday’s demonstration hope that a public show of interest might entice either the police or the State Attorney to say a little something more.