Details Sifted in Biker Clash That Left 2 Pagans Dead (original) (raw)
New York|Details Sifted in Biker Clash That Left 2 Pagans Dead
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- July 19, 1994
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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July 19, 1994
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Section B, Page
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Perhaps 150 motorcycling enthusiasts were gathered in the picnic grove of an Elks Lodge on Mountain Avenue in this sleepy western New Jersey town on Sunday afternoon when the arguments started near an outdoor beer and liquor stand.
"In rapid succession it went from fists to knives and from knives to guns," the Warren County Prosecutor, John J. O'Reilly, recounted today.
The violence that erupted about 3:45 P.M. between two motorcycle clubs at the charity barbecue left two men dead and three wounded. At least eight members of the Pagans, a rival group, had crashed the annual fund-raising picnic of the Tri-County Motorcycle Club, an organization of bikers in Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties in northwestern New Jersey. Details Under Investigation
After detectives spent last night and most of today questioning at least 100 of those at the barbecue, Mr. O'Reilly said the details and exact sequence of events remained under investigation. He said these three factors, in particular, are being explored:
*The Pagan cyclists may have crashed the picnic as an initiation rite.
*The Pagans came without their club "colors," or insignias, and arrived in a white van and a red pickup truck, not on motorcycles as nearly all other partygoers had.
*The fighting may have stemmed from the ill will of an encounter between members of the two groups in Sussex County a couple of months ago.
Mr. O'Reilly declined to offer any other details.
As this sleepy town of 8,100 buzzed today about the outburst, Mr. O'Reilly said his staff had sent teletype messages to law-enforcement authorities around the country, informing them of the violence and the deaths here and cautioning them of possible spillovers elsewhere. Weapons Found at Scene
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