Reports say a little after 2 a.m. PDT Saturday, 60 to 70 people were involved in a knife and gun fight inside the entrance to Harrah's Casino in Laughlin. Three were killed, and 11 wounded. Word on the street in Oatman is Angels versus Mongols. All the dead were "bikers", according to Metro police.
Five people, four of them shot or stabbed, were taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas - one critical with a fractured skull, three serious and one in fair condition with gunshot wounds.
Seven were taken to the hospital in Bullhead City, all in fair condition: five shot or stabbed, one blunt trauma, one with chest pain. Three of these have already been released.
The Colorado River bridges were shut down shortly after the battle, and re-opened later in the morning. People weren't allowed to leave the scene at Harrah's until about 8 a.m.
Police so far have arrested one person and are interviewing about 200 people who may be potentially involved. Bullhead City Fire Department's spokesman said there were about 100 people in cuffs or spread eagled on the floor in the area where BCFD personnel were removing victims.
There are rumors of Angels reinforcements speeding across the desert from Phoenix, Vegas, and L.A., and I'm told the Mongols are holed up in Laughlin. The various police forces in Laughlin and surrounding areas have gone on full alert to head off any more confrontations. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) SWAT team has been called out and is in the field. MCSO has officers and an armored car stationed in Oatman, with more officers positioned on the road leading to town.
I haven't seen or heard of any riders being hassled around Oatman because of this.
Every rider I've spoken to today is disgusted by the morning's event. Taking care of business at a major run is extremely uncool and unprofitable. Either the leadership doesn't have the experience to know this, or doesn't have what it takes to keep the hotheads in line. So they flipped off 80,000 riders, the cops, and the casinos, and now the heat is on for them. More later - Joe
11 p.m. Update:
Laughlin Barricaded
I mentioned rumors earlier - that 1500 to 3,000 Hells Angels from around the Southwest are en route to Laughlin bent on war, and the Mongols are holed up in town, fearing for their lives on the road. It looks like the authorities are taking these rumors very seriously.
At 5:45 p.m. I rode out of Oatman headed for Laughlin. Mohave County sheriff's deputies were posted every few miles along the road out of town, and they didn't seem to be looking for speeders.
I took AZ95 north toward Bullhead and Laughlin. There were crowds of bikes on the highway, not bothered by cops. I passed a flashing road sign in Fort Mojave that said, "Harrah's Closed".
Near the Laughlin bridge there were mobs of motorcyclists parked and hanging around the side of the road. I got to the bridge around 6:30. The mouth of it was barricaded by five Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) patrol cars. On the bridge 50 yards past them, two DOT barricade trucks were parked and blocking all four lanes - a double barricade.The DPS major incident command RV arrived as I watched, and pulled in behind the first barricade.
DPS officers were forcing traffic to keep moving straight ahead - no turns allowed, either on to the bridge or on to the Bullhead Parkway. In the middle of the highway, one officer in a black uniform carried an M-16. Another, at the barricade, carried a Ruger Mini-14 carbine. Several others carried pump shotguns. Bullhead City PD had the parkway blockaded. One of their officers told me the road over nearby Davis Dam was also closed.
I pulled over past the intersection and shot some tape. No problem. But when I started taking notes, the DPS officer in charge stormed right over across four lanes of traffic to find out who I was. He declared the area was a "secure zone", and told me to leave. Of course I didn't argue.
My driver's license ID was duly checked and noted, and I left, headed for the Veterans Bridge at the Avi Casino on the Fort Mojave Reservation. When I got there a little after 7, I saw a police road block was set up on both sides of the bridge.
The bridge was open, but the traffic leaving Nevada, cars and motorcycles, was far heavier than the traffic going in. I suspected the highway north to Laughlin would be closed, and I was afraid the bridge behind me might be, so I turned around and crossed back to Arizona. I noticed the Tribal police on the Arizona side were carrying what looked like H&K MP5 9mm submachine guns. Also on that side was a Suburban with a group of men wearing blue shirts with yellow lettering: "FEDERAL AGENT".
My guess is that Metro PD in Laughlin declared Harrah's a crime scene and sealed it from the public. They've probably collared every member and associate of both clubs they can lay their hands on - 100, 200, 300 people? I would guess they're using the hotel as a temporary holding and interview area - a perfect target for an army of hell-bent Hells Angels.
That's the situation as of 7:30 p.m. There's no way to track vans full of Hells Angels on the roads, so I suspect the blockade will continue until all the cops' suspects are secured in the Clark County, NV jail or other facilities.
The reason for all this? I'm told the Mongols are affiliates of the Bandidos, one of the "Big 4" bike clubs in the U.S., and the Bandidos are moving in on Angel turf in California. They say a group of hardest-core Angels called the "81s" are violently opposing the Bandidos' moves.
The FBI, almost unemployed after the end of the Cold War, kept its agents busy wreaking havoc on outlaw motorcycle clubs, putting many of the senior, experienced leaders in prison. I wonder if demented acts like this at the River Run, and the Pagans/Angels bash in Long Island in February, are an "unintended consequence" of the idled FBI partially destroying the clubs.
Another Wreck on 66
Back in Oatman at 8 p.m. and comparing notes with the chief at the firehouse, a call came in for a motorcycle wreck a few miles out on 66. The volunteer firefighters and EMTs responded immediately, and the engine and rescue truck were en route in the time it took to start the engines.
But the information had been mixed up. Rick, 44, of Denver, Colorado, and his pal Gary were riding around a curve on 66 twenty miles from Oatman, near Golden Shores, when a coyote ran out in the road. Rick swerved to avoid it, got his bike into the sand, and flew off it, taking severe lumps on landing. Gary picked him up, put him on the back of his bike, and carried his bleeding injured friend all the way to Oatman, passing the ambulance on the last mile in.
Rick was on the floor inside the front door of the firehouse when the ambulance got back. He was bandaged and splinted while paramedics were en route from Mohave Valley. They transported him to the hospital in Needles.
That's it for today. We'll clean up some of this mess tomorrow.