Star-Telegram.com | 07/31/2007 | Hells Angels members charged in Ark. melee that injured 4 Texans

Posted on Tue, Jul. 31, 2007 Hells Angels members charged in Ark. melee that injured 4 Texans

The Associated Press
Six members of the Hells Angels face battery charges after allegedly stabbing and beating four rival gang members as a weekend gathering of the motorcycle club was wrapping up in northern Arkansas.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said members of the Bandidos and the Hells Angels got into a fight Sunday afternoon and four Bandidos members were stabbed.
Police were trying to determine what led to the attack, Eureka Springs Police Chief Earl Hyatt said Monday. The six were arrested on first-degree battery charges and jailed in Carroll County, awaiting a bond hearing, Hyatt said in a news release.
Arrested were Jason David Gallo, 36, of Peabody, Mass.; Eric Claudio Franco, 32, of Lynn, Mass.; Christopher Michael Sweeney, 37, of Lynn, Mass.; Robert Thomas Reynolds, 37, of Sandown, N.H.; Manny R. Monteiro, 33, of Danvers, Mass.; and Derek Jeffery Roy, 21, of Lisbon Falls, Maine.
Monday, three of the victims remained hospitalized, including one in critical condition. The fourth man had been treated and released. Hyatt said all four were expected to survive.
Hyatt identified the victims as Lubbock, Texas residents Isidro Savala Zerrata Jr., 49, Keith Allen Miller, 60, and Thomas Goodnight, age unknown. Also injured was David Thomas Wood, 38, of Amarillo, Texas.
Witnesses told police the attack happened on the parking lot of the Gingerbread Antique building on U.S. 62, Hyatt said.
Normally, two state troopers would be on duty in Carroll County. But 60 were assigned to the county and Eureka Springs after local law enforcement and business people got word that trouble might occur when the Hells Angels made their 2007 USA run, Sadler said.
The event attracted about 300 to 400 chapter members from around the country.
The FBI estimates the Hells Angels takes in $1 billion a year worldwide from drug trafficking. Membership is estimated at around 2,500.