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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Promoter asks Iron Order to stay away from Colorado biker events

 Iron Order members rounded up for safety following shooting

Denver, Colorado - 2/23/2015

The organizer of events that draws motorcyclists to southern Colorado have asked a cop motorcycle club to stay away after they were involved in a fatal brawl in Denver.

Jim Wear, president of Pro Promotions Inc., said he asked the Iron Order to accept a voluntary ban to the company's motorcycle events in Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs as a safety precaution.

The club has agreed to do so, said John Whitfield, a lawyer for the Iron Order. "We are trying to be reasonable. We have got a right to go, but the reasonable and safe thing to do right now is agree not to go," he said.

Members of the Iron Order were involved in a deadly brawl at the Colorado Motorcycle Expo in Denver Jan. 30 that ended with a member of the Mongols MC shot to death, and seven other men shot or stabbed.

Denver police say a Colorado Department of Corrections officer who is a member of the Iron Order fired a shot during the fight.

The Mongols MC and Iron Order blame each other for starting the brawl.

So far no one has been charged in connection with the fatal fight.




"When we are the target of these unlawful attacks, it doesn't make good sense to be going to any of these events," Whitfield said.

Last June, a fistfight broke out between the Iron Rockets, an affiliate of the Iron Order, and other bikers at the Tejon Street Bike Fest in Colorado Springs, said Wear, whose company promotes the event.

"It was the same kind of little pushing and shoving contest that happens in bars in Denver and Colorado Springs every Friday night. But it was the first and only fight involving motorcyclists that has happened at one of our events in 30 years, and it concerned me," Wear said.

After the fatal fight at the Expo, held at the National Western Center, Wear decided to ask Iron Order members to stay away from his events, he said.

The Iron Order members said they defended themselves at the Expo.

"I'm not saying they're right or wrong," Wear said. "But two experiences say you have a common thread here, connect the dots, there is a problem."

Wear said he is considering whether to ask other motorcycle clubs to also stay away.

"The fact that the Iron Order has agreed to stay away is huge for us because that takes at least one component out of the mix," Wear said. "I thank the Iron Order and appreciate their cooperation. You have got to start somewhere."
 Source: The Denver Post