|
Tuesday, July 07, 1998
Anti-racist skinheads killed
The bodies of two men are found three days apart, and police say the slayings may be racially motivated.
By Joe Schoenmann
Review-Journal
Ongoing skirmishes between two skinhead groups -- one racist, one anti-racist -- may be linked to the slaying of two young men found 150 yards from each other in the northwest Las Vegas Valley.
Daniel Shersty, 20, was found Saturday morning three miles west of U.S. Highway 95 near Rome Boulevard. His friend, Lin "Spit" Newborn, 25, was found Monday 150 yards from Shersty.
The two belonged to Las Vegas Unity Skins, an anti-racist skinhead group. Shersty was white. Newborn was black.
The two also were members of Anti-Racist Action, said a member of that skinhead group who asked that his name not be used. "The safety of my family is more important right now," he said.
Las Vegas police confirmed Shersty and Newborn were together at midnight Friday, telling friends they were on their way to meet two women. The ARA member said Newborn, who worked at Tribal Body Piercing, 4800 S. Maryland Parkway, had given one of the women a piercing, possibly in the navel, earlier Saturday or Friday.
The woman, he added, then left a message on Newborn's answering machine Friday, telling him to meet her and another woman.
"We have no idea if these girls lured them into a trap or what," said the spokesman.
After police were told the pair were together the night before Shersty's body was found, they expanded their search of the area and found Newborn's body.
Homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said late Monday investigators have no idea who the women are.
"That's still a mystery," he said.
He also said that, based upon what friends of the deceased have told police, the killings could have been racially motivated.
"Both victims were associated with an anti-racist group," he said. "And other people have been telling us there has been tension between them and a racist group."
Petersen said homicide investigators on the case were pursuing "a couple of things."
"We may get a break in this case," he said.
Petersen said Newborn may have been shot as he ran away. Friends said Shersty was shot in the face.
The last time skinheads drew the interest of local police was in 1992, when Las Vegas white supremacist Johnny Bangerter, a k a "Johnny Bangs," moved to Southern Utah to create a whites-only homeland in Zion National Park.
Today, he sits in Utah State Prison awaiting an evaluation and sentencing on a third-degree felony charge of failure to respond to an officer.
Sgt. Mike Bunker of the police department's Intelligence Services Section remembered Bangerter but said Monday Las Vegas in 1998 has nothing to compare to him.
"Most of the skinheads in the Las Vegas area have become low-key," he said. "Las Vegas right now is very, very quiet."
That's why the police department right now does not spend a lot of time investigating those groups, he added.
"So, are we aware of them? Yes," he said. "But dedicating large amounts of time? No."
Police are looking into charges that members of the two opposing groups have been at odds in recent months. The ARA member said Newborn "had many, many confrontations with these guys."
"We've butted heads with them several times," he added. "We don't go around looking for it."
He described the ARA as nonviolent, committed to peaceful resistance and devoutly anti-racist.
They shave their heads, he said, because that is a symbol of their working-class roots. "We're all working-class kids. We pay our bills, and we don't do drugs. We drink, but we don't drink and drive. We look out for each other."
Give us your FEEDBACK on this or any story.
Fill out our Online Readers' Poll
|
|
