Hells Angel Claims Shooting Self-Defense

A Hells Angel, attacked by rival Ghost Riders motorcycle gang members and left in a “bloody heap” outside a Spokane tavern, fired a gun in self-defense, a jury was told Thursday.

Timothy G. Myers, secretary of the Spokane chapter of the Hells Angels, is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for shooting two men outside the Comet tavern in Hillyard on Dec. 9.

Myers, 42, was assaulted and stripped of his Hells Angels colors as a reprisal by Ghost Riders and their friends, defense attorney Bevan Maxey said in his opening statement to the jury.

“He fired in order to protect himself from further beating - serious beating,” Maxey said.

The shooting left Sean P. Kilgallen, 31, dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Gary G. Fisette, 23, was shot in the stomach and critically wounded, but recovered. He is the nephew of the Ghost Riders club president, who also was involved in the assault on Myers.

Deputy prosecutor David Hearrean offered a different version of the shootings, telling the jury that Myers fired in anger because his Hells Angels colors were stolen.

Colors are club patches members wear on their jackets and vests.

Witnesses will explain how a biker’s colors “are their most prized possession,” Hearrean said. “You don’t take those colors, or you pay the price.”

The shootings were simply “just over colors, ladies and gentlemen,” the prosecutor said.

Maxey said photographs show how Myers was brutally beaten and left fearing for his life.

But Hearrean said the bruises were not from an assault by Ghost Riders, but from two tavern bouncers who restrained Myers as he attempted to flee.

The prosecutor said Myers was carrying a 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun in the small of his back and fired the shot into Kilgallen’s heart from 18 inches away.

He shot Fisette from two or three feet away, Hearrean told the jury.

Fisette is the nephew of Kenneth “Maggot” Fisette, who Hearrean identified as the Ghost Riders president. Kilgallen was a new member of the motorcycle gang.

Over the prosecutor’s objection, Maxey told the jury that Kenneth Fisette and other Ghost Riders blame the Hells Angels for a 1994 attack at the Ghost Riders clubhouse.

Kenneth Fisette’s colors were stolen and he suffered a concussion, a broken arm, and cuts that required 60 stitches during the fight.

, DataTimes