Five men arrested; victim listed in critical condition

An earlier fight or beating at the Diablos Motorcycle Club apparently led to a shooting Thursday evening near the group’s clubhouse on Eighth Avenue between 26th and 27th streets.

In a court hearing Friday, Terre Haute Police Department detectives Keith Mowbray and Brad Rumsey testified witnesses gave information about a running altercation Thursday between the shooting victim — 54-year-old Kenny Pitts — and members of the Diablos. 

The detectives also said members of the motorcycle club also tried to cover up evidence.

Mowbray said Pitts suffered two gunshot wounds and was in critical condition at an Indianapolis hospital.

The testimony prompted Judge Michael Rader to find probable cause to hold five Diablos members. Those arrested, initial charges and their bond amounts are:

A 38-year-old man gunned down in his Grand Junction trailer earlier this month had moments earlier been arguing with his alleged attackers and telling them he did not want to join their outlaw motorcycle club, witnesses told police.

One witness told officers that Dion Nixon was frustrated with accused shooters Richard Byrd and Rufus Billups, and that during the confrontation, Nixon drew and fired a handgun himself as his attackers opened fire and fatally wounded him, according to arresting documents recently unsealed by a Mesa County district judge.

Byrd, a 48-year-old Fruita man who prosecutors believe is the local chapter president of outlaw motorcycle club the Sin City Deciples, and Billups, 41, of Grand Junction, face first-degree murder and felony menacing charges in Nixon’s death.

WACO, Texas (KWTX) A complex federal case whose defendants include top officials of the Bandidos biker gang could delay the start of the trials of the dozens of bikers indicted after the deadly 2015 shootout at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna filed notice Wednesday with the state district judges who will preside over the Twin Peaks trials that the federal investigation “has information which relates to the events at Twin Peaks” that won’t be released until the federal defendants are tried, which might not happen until sometime next year.

Reyna was advised in a letter dated Monday from U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin that the information the FBI has was “obtained through court-authorized wire intercepts…and remains under seal and protective order.”