Sep 19, 2008 12:00 am US/Pacific
SJ Explosions May Be Tied To Biker Gang Battle
SAN JOSE (CBS 5) ―
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Investigators place evidence markers at a home on Melannie Court in San Jose following reports of an explosion Thursday.
CBS
San Jose police investigated a possible link Thursday between an explosion that rocked a residential neighborhood in East San Jose and a battle between rival motorcycle clubs that heated up after the murder of a prominent member of the Hells Angels, San Jose Police spokesman Jarmaine Thomas confirmed.
Federal agents were also conducting an investigatin at the scene of Thursday's explosion, but would only confirm that the home targeted belonged to a motorcycle club member.
"We are aware that one of the residents, Robert Rios, is a member of the Mongols motorcycle club," said Nina Delgadillo, spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The blast happened at 3:30 a.m. on the 700 block of Melannie Court. "It sounded like mortars being fired," one neighbor said. Other neighbors said they heard as many as three explosions.
"There were a number of explosive devices at that location," said Delgadillo.
Police declined to specify which type of explosive was used but said it blew up on the street. Nobody was injured and no property was damaged.
Police officers on the scene refused to confirm or deny that the blast was connected to a biker group fued. But law enforcement sources told CBS 5 that detectives were investigating the possibility that the explosion targeted the man because he is a Mongol.
"I've got no comment, man. I'm not allowed to comment," Rios told CBS 5 hours after the explosion. When asked if he thought he were targeted because he's a Mongols member, Rios replied: "You guys figure it out."
Sources also told CBS 5 that authorities were looking into any possible link to the Sept. 2 murder of San Francisco Hells Angels' chapter president Mark "Papa" Guardado outside a Mission District bar near 24th Street and Treat Avenue.
San Francisco police have an arrest warrant out for Christopher Ablett of Modesto, allegedly a member of the rival Mongols, in connection with that murder.
At least one expert doesn't believe the Hells Angels were responsible for the San Jose blast.
Timothy McKinley, a former FBI agent and expert on motorcycle gangs, said the Hells Angels have been responsible for other hits in the past, but a pipe bomb on a sidewalk does not appear to be their mode of operation.
"If the Hell's Angels were responsible, there would be a smoking hole where the house once stood," said Mckinley, who is now an attorney in Lafayette.
"If this was a Hells Angels hit and you mess it up that bad, you'd be dead," he said.
"It was either a stunningly incompetent hit," Mckinley speculated, "or a Mongol trying to make points inside his gang."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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