Ted Lempart thought someone was throwing rocks at his motorcycle.
He was riding with a group of fellow Vagos Motorcycle Club members on Interstate 11/U.S. Highway 95 late last month when he saw a man and woman fly off a bike in front of him, landing in the rocks by the side of the highway. Lempart testified to a grand jury that it wasn’t until he pulled over to help the other bikers that someone noticed the blood on his thigh and he realized he had been shot, according to court transcripts released recently.
Lempart was one of several witnesses who described the chaos surrounding the May 29 shooting, when prosecutors said Hells Angels members targeted the Vagos bikers on the highway in the southeast valley.
Although most of the Vagos members who testified gave few details about the shooting, Lempart didn’t hesitate to tell jurors how he felt about the rival bikers he said ambushed his group.
“It’s cowardly,” Lempart testified. “Whatever happened to the day we go in the backyard and duke it out? We had no problem with them. None at all.”
Three men — Richard Devries, 66, Russell Smith, 26, and Stephen Alo, 46 — have been indicted on 36 felony charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and discharging a gun at or into an occupied vehicle. Prosecutors have said Devries is the president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Hells Angels, while Smith and Alo have been described as “prospects” for the group.
Six Vagos members were injured in the shooting along the stretch of highway west of Wagon Wheel Drive. A seventh person, who prosecutors said was a Hells Angel member, was also injured in the shooting.
Prosecutors have said the gunfire may have been an act of retaliation for a shooting at a San Bernardino bar in April in which a Hells Angels member was killed. But Lempart challenged the claim, according to transcripts from the grand jury hearing.
READ REST OF ARTICLE
- OUTLAW BIKERS RUNNING LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES TO LAUNDER MONEY
- TERROR ON THE HIGHWAY BETWEEN VAGOS AND HELLS ANGELS
- EP 773 – BIKER WARS PAGANS MC VS HELLS ANGELS
- PAGANS MC SOUTHWEST& HELLS ANGELS ARIZONA FIGHT OVER TURF
- EP 772 – 25 ARRESTED MOTORCYCLE CLUB SHOCKER WTH
