Customers who bought tickets for Sunday’s motorcycle expo will receive refunds, the City and County of Denver said in a news release.
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Police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said she couldn’t say whether the incident was gang related. Whitfield says the officer was a member of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club, which is made up mostly of police and military.
Stubbs says he has concerns Denver Police will be fair because they’re investigating a brother in blue.
“We’ll assess how the event, if at all, is held again in our city”, says Denver Manager of Safety, Stephanie O’Malley.
Denver’s coroner on Monday identified the 46-year-old man slain in a shooting during a motorcycle club melee on Saturday that also left seven others injured.
The two biker groups on Sunday blamed each other for inciting the violence. Bob Cook said he heard two shots fired and saw people dive under tables. Three of the wounded were hit by gunfire, another person was stabbed and three others suffered injuries from a fistfight, police said.
Iron Order’s lawyer John C. Whitfield says that the fight broke out when one of the Mongols made a racial slur at one of the former club’s Afro-American members and shots were fired in self-defense, after his clients were surrounded. The two groups are blaming each other for the incident, with Mongols attorney Stephen Stubbs claiming that the Iron Order members taunted the Mongols into an argument and that “none of the Mongols involved in the altercation had a gun, not even one of them”, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“We don’t have any issue with the Mongols”, he said.
Saunier wouldn’t identify any of the motorcycle gangs by name during a conversation with reporters on Monday, however CBS4 reported the fight was primarily between The Mongols and The Iron Order.
No arrests have been made yet.
Lopez said few details were being released because investigators were still trying to piece together what happened. Pools of blood were reportedly seen at the scene of the melee, but the motorcycle expo continued as officers arrived and started the investigation.
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A statement posted on the event’s website said it didn’t have any information and apologized to vendors and patrons for any inconvenience.
