EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) – Six members of the Hells Angels, including one man from Lisbon Falls, face battery charges after allegedly stabbing and beating four members of a rival gang as a weekend gathering of the motorcycle club was wrapping up in northern Arkansas, police said Monday.

State police spokesman Bill Sadler said members of the Bandidos and the Hells Angels got into a disagreement about 2:30 p.m. Sunday and four Bandido members were stabbed.

Six members of Hell’s Angels were being held in the Carroll County jail on first-degree battery charges, Eureka Springs Police Chief Earl Hyatt said in a news release Monday.

Sadler said two of the victims were critically injured and taken to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, while the other two were taken to hospitals in Springdale and Eureka Springs. All four were expected to survive, Hyatt said.

Hyatt identified the victims as: Isidro Savala Zerrata Jr., 49, of Lubbock, Texas; David Thomas Wood, 38, of Amarillo, Texas; Keith Allen Miller, 60, of Lubbock; and Thomas Goodnight of Lubbock.

Witnesses told police that the attack happened in the parking lot of the Gingerbread Antique building on U.S. 62, Hyatt said.

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The Hell’s Angels arrested on battery charges were identified by Hyatt as: Jason David Gallo, 36, of Peabody, Mass.; Eric Claudio Franco, 32, of Lynn, Mass.; Christopher Michael Sweeney, 37, of Lynn, Mass.; Robert Thomas Reynolds, 37, of Sandown, N.H.; Manny R. Monteiro, 33, of Danvers, Mass.; and Derek Jeffery Roy, 21, of Lisbon Falls.

Hyatt said police don’t know yet what led to the attack.

Normally, two state troopers would be on duty in Carroll County. But 60 were assigned to the county and Eureka Springs after local law enforcement and business people got word that trouble might occur when the Hells Angels made their 2007 USA run, Sadler said.

The event, which began last week, attracted about 300-400 chapter members from around the country. Sadler said the meeting was breaking up and the additional troopers were returning to their normal duties when the altercation occurred.

Friday night, police shooed away a small group of Bandidos. The only arrest of a Hells Angel was on a driving-while-intoxicated charge that night.

Lovitta Anderson, who served Hells Angels meals at the 1876 Inn & Restaurant, found them to be pleasant. “That’s the cleanest, neatest, friendliest people you’d ever want to be around,” Anderson said.

“They’re just regular guys,” said Mark Johnson, a motorcycle enthusiast from Fayetteville who drove to Eureka Springs on Saturday to look at the notorious motorcycle gang.

The FBI estimates the Hells Angels takes in $1 billion a year worldwide from drug trafficking. Membership is estimated at around 2,500.



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