Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, 51, the leader of the San Jose Hells Angels biker gang was shot dead over the weekend at a Nevada casino. Later in the night a second shooting by a biker led to a state of emergency in the town of Sparks.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal two rival bikers from the Vagos motorcycle gang were also injured during the shooting. The shots were fired in the Nugget hotel and casino near Reno.
After the shootings took place one biker was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon although it’s not believed that his gun killed Pettigrew.
According to observers the shooting occurred after a fistfight broke out among the bikers near the slot machines. One on-looker told the Reno Gazette-Journal that a member of the Hells Angels went “down with the bloody nose, gets up and pulls out the gun and that’s the first shot.” They go on to add, “By the third shot we were already running.”
An ongoing investigation is underway, in the meantime the state of emergency warning has been lifted and tensions around the Nugget casino appear to have lessened.
