Well before Stingers Bar and Nightclub closed its doors for the night, San Bernardino police had already helped keep the Deuces motorcycle club from entering the establishment. But by the time it closed, shortly before 2 a.m., they bikers were gathered in the parking lot in an industrial park behind a Motel Six off East Redlands Boulevard.
Some 20-30 shots rang out and patrons and vehicles scattered, according to police and witnesses. One person fell dead, police said.
Two blocks east, at Waterman Avenue, more shots were fired at an Arco service station, police said. Another person died.
By the time the shootings ended, five others had been wounded, with two in “extremely critical condition,” said San Bernardino Police Lt. Rich Lawhead.
Hours later, tensions flared anew as about 75 people, many of them members of the bike group, gathered at Loma Linda University Medical Center, to find out the fate of relatives and friends.
“They were upset after the coroner gave them the news,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.
When hospital employees asked the group to stay outside, they became combative, Bachman said. One person threw hot coffee on a San Bernardino police detective. The group was kicked out and officers from Redlands and San Bernardino County sheriff’s assisted.
Lawhead said it’s well-known that a motorcycle crowd hangs out at the Stingers Bar and Nightclub on Tuesday nights.
“I have no idea what was said. Sometimes all it takes is a word to get it started,” Lawhead said.
The Deuces Motorcycle Club is familiar to police, officials said. Among other incidents, two men were shot outside a Deuces club location in 2010, police said. The club also ran afoul of local planning and zoning officials over a location where it held events in Highland.
Police believe there multiple shooters were involved this time because there were 20 to 30 rounds fired. Investigators will review surveillance tape.
Eugene Jones, a nightclub promoter, told KTLA that shots rang out as people were leaving the club.
The bar closes at 1 a.m., according to its website.
“Everyone got down,” he said, adding that three of his friends were wounded. “It’s kind of heartbreaking.”
Several evidence markers were placed around the Arco gas station that sits at the corner of Waterman Avenue and Redlands Boulevard as police investigated one of the shooting scenes.
By late morning, the emergency room at Loma Linda was empty, save for a huddled group of people crowded inside — some of them with leather jackets that read “Deuces” — trying to make sense of the morning’s violence.
“My brother died and they won’t let us see him and I don’t know why,” one man said.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: LA Times, Sarah Parvini, Irfan Khan, and Joseph Serna
BCNN1 WP 