Supremacists Face Charges In Shooting

Prosecutors have charged four professed members of the Aryan Nations with assault after someone reportedly fired a gunshot toward three men outside a Cheney pizza parlor.

John Christopher Perry, 20, Cary Sam Whitehead, 18, and two 15-year-old boys were charged this week with second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment.

The four Spokane residents claimed to belong to the Aryan Nations and were wearing “Nazi regalia” when they were arrested March 14, said Sgt. Larry Smith of the Cheney police.

Police found pamphlets “of a white supremacist nature” in the group’s car after it was stopped in Medical Lake that night, court documents state.

“They certainly walked the talk and made no bones about it,” Smith said. “They knew all the slogans.”

Two 15-year-old Spokane girls who were with the group were charged with reckless endangerment and rendering assistance to their companions.

Police said the six were involved in an altercation outside Gatto’s Pizza Restaurant in Cheney shortly before their arrests.

Some members of the group reportedly exchanged words with three men outside the restaurant about 10 p.m., Smith said.

“Ironically, all the people involved in this were white,” he said.

After the argument, Perry, Whitehead and the juveniles climbed into their car and drove off, Smith said.

According to court documents, someone stuck a handgun out of the car window and fired a shot over the parking lot as the car passed in front of Gatto’s.

A witness said he saw someone giving a Nazi salute out of the window as the shot was fired, the documents state.

A Medical Lake police officer pulled the car over some time later after he recognized it from a description broadcast over his police radio.

Police found a loaded 9mm handgun, the pamphlets and two knives, one of them with a brass-knuckle handle, in the car, according to the documents.

Officers saw swastikas on the car, the documents state.

Perry and Whitehead were being held Friday in the county jail in lieu of $100,000 bond each.

“They were the adults. We feel that they were the responsible parties,” said assistant prosecutor Dave Hearrean, explaining the high bail.

In addition, Perry has an extensive criminal record and ties to the Aryan Nations, Hearrean said.

The juveniles were released on home monitoring.

, DataTimes