Nashville, Tennessee, USA (May 1, 2020) BTN - Authorities on Thursday found a weapons cache with over a dozen guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition and body armor during the arrest of a man suspected in a double homicide in Alabama.
Tyrone Johnson, 37, was wanted in connection to the fatal shooting of two men outside a motorcycle club in Huntsville, Alabama, on March 27.
A U.S. Marshal’s task force found 17 guns, two sets of body armor, and thousands of rounds ammunition when they arrested Johnson at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
The shooting, which injured two others, was one of three shootings outside the club within an 8-hour span, according to AL.com. The Huntsville police chief described the incident as a "culmination" of tensions between motorcycle clubs.
We just finished the search of accused Huntsville, AL murder suspect Tyrone Johnson's Flintlock Ct residence in Nashville.
Found: 17 guns, 2 sets of body armor, thousands of rounds of ammo & gang paraphernalia. Johnson being held as a fugitive from AL. $500k bond. pic.twitter.com/ErPJz7DKcb
Police said Johnson is being held on a $500,000 bond and is to be extradited to Alabama. It’s unclear if he has retained an attorney. Johnson is the second suspect arrested in the March incident that killed Bernard Griffin and Kelcey Smith.
Albert Vinson, 31, was charged earlier this month with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and discharging a weapon into an unoccupied building, according to county jail records. Records also show he was released on April 18. It is unclear whether Vinson has retained an attorney.
Bancroft, Ontario (April 28, 2020) BTN - Two people were arrested during a raid by the Ontario Provincial Police’s biker enforcement unit in the town of Bancroft, Ontario. On April 22, the Ontario Provincial Police unit and the Belleville police’s tactical team searched a Bancroft home.
The Belleville police claimed numerous firearms, including rifles and handguns, and various types of drugs were seized during the warrant. The Belleville police released an image of items seized, which includes leather jackets with Outlaw Motorcycle Club logos on them.
Two people, 48-year-old Brian Sturgeon and 41-year-old Laura Power, both from Bancroft, were charged with the following:
Three counts of careless storage of a firearm
Two counts of breach of firearms regulations
Two counts of unauthorized possession of a weapon
Possession of a schedule I substance
Possession of a schedule II substance
Possession of schedule III substance
Possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000
Both of the accused were released on bail. Belleville police are still investigating the case.
Copperopolis, California, USA (April 27, 2020) BTN — Charlie Brechtel died in a motorcycle crash on O’Bynes Ferry Road on Saturday, April 25 at 5:52 pm.
Charlie was riding his 1987 Harley-Davidson motorcycle when his motorcycle crossed the double-yellow line, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Charlie’s Harley-Davidson collided with the front left corner of a 2013 Chevy Equinox being driven the opposite direction by Briana Mason, 29, and Evan Gorder, 29, both of Davis.
Charlie was ejected from his motorcycle and was pronounced dead at the scene. Neither Briana nor Evan were injured. No arrests were made, and the Highway Patrol accident report states that drugs and alcohol do not appear to be factors in the collision.
Brechtel was a nationally known figure among motorcycle enthusiasts, and was nicknamed “Good Time Charlie.” Charlie Brechtel’s music is in an honest to goodness tribute to the biker lifestyle that he loved.
His top notch musical group, the Charlie Brechtel Band, had been featured in many motorcycle films.
Charlie’s music has been featured on the Sons of Anarchy TV series as well as many other biker movies, books and events. Charlie worked with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Deacon Jones, Gregg Allman, B.B. King, Dr. John, Buddy Miles, Aaron Neville, Freddy Fender, Steppenwolfe and much.
He had his own stage every year at The Buffalo Chip in Sturgis and headlined every night.
Charlie has opened for artists such as Dave Mason, Foghat, Edgar Winter, Jackyl and a host of others. He was also a Composer, Arranger, Songwriter and Producer. Brechtel was 62-years-old.
Pittsburgh, PA (April 18, 2020) BTN — The owner of a South Side bar in which undercover city police officers and members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club fought in October 2018 has sued the officers, their chief and the mayor, saying the police started the fight and have a history of abusing people while their leaders have condoned it.
Stephen R. Kopy, owner of Kopy's Bar, said in the federal court suit that the officers escalated a tense situation with the Pagans MC before the fight erupted on Oct. 12, 2018, ignoring him when he told them the bikers weren't causing any trouble as they played pool in a back room.
When the punching began, he said an officer pepper-sprayed him without cause as he tried to shield other patrons. Later, he said, another officer tried to cover police actions by destroying a surveillance video of the incident, not realizing that copies had already been given to other parties, including lawyers for the Pagans MC.
The Biker Trash Network as been covering this story from the start.
Mr. Kopy and his lawyer, George Farneth, cited numerous other incidents of alleged abuse by Pittsburgh police, many of which have resulted in federal lawsuits.
The officers, according to the suit, "conspired and acted in concert with each other" to deprive him of his civil rights in the wake of the brawl. Chief Scott Schubert and Mayor William Peduto also made defamatory statements in defending the police and labeling his establishment as a "biker bar" and nuisance bar when it is neither, Mr. Kopy said.
In addition to the mayor, the chief and the city of Pittsburgh, the suit names Officers Brian Martin, Brian Burgunder, David Honick, David Lincoln, Matthew Turko, a detective identified only as Murray, and John Doe, an unknown officer.
The bikers said the officers instigated the fight after drinking all evening and into the night and then jailed them on false charges of having assaulted them. The district attorney's office withdrew the charges and several of the Pagans MC members later filed federal lawsuits against the police.
Video of the incident shows Officer Lincoln punching one of the Pagans MC members, Frank DeLuca, nearly 20 times in the face as another officer pins him to the bar. The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office reviewed the case for civil rights charges but said they found no basis for federal crimes.
The suit largely repeats claims Mr. Farneth and Mr. Kopy have previously made that the police were to blame and should be held accountable.
It says that the officers involved, and other city officers, have shown a pattern of abuse under the training of instructor David Wright and the supervision of Chief Schubert.
"At the direction and under the tutelage of Schubert and the City, the police are trained to be aggressive above all else, to escalate all citizen encounters so that their aggression is greater than the citizen they encounter, even when their aggression results in the use of excessive force, and to 'win' under all circumstances during citizen encounters," Mr. Farneth says in the complaint.
The suit says the police and their leaders are part of a "good old boy network" that protects police who violate civil rights with aggressive tactics and then cover their tracks with false affidavits and charges.
The suit cites numerous incidents of alleged police abuse, some of which involved officers in the Kopy's fight.
Among them are the case of Kyle Sholtis, of Uniontown, Ohio, who in a federal lawsuit filed last year said Officer Turko used a Taser on him without cause after a scuffle at the Cheerleaders club on Liberty Avenue in 2017. The suit also mentions Officer Turko in another incident in which he was accused in a federal lawsuit of beating a man during a traffic stop on the North Side in 2012. In that case, a federal court jury awarded the man $105,000 in damages.
The Kopy's suit is asking for compensatory and punitive damages and other relief, although no dollar figure is mentioned.
Spokesmen for the mayor and the police declined to comment on the suit.
