New Video Shows Motorcycle Club Member Telling Police About Deadly Shooting
DENVER (CBS4) - New video released to CBS4 shows the police interview with a motorcycle club member who shot and killed a member of another motorcycle club.
The shooting was in January at the National Western Complex during a confrontation between the Iron Order and the Mongols clubs. The interview was obtained by CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger through an open records request.
In the video Derrick Duran of the Iron Order is seen standing telling detectives about the scene at the bottom of a stairwell at the National Western Complex during the Colorado Motorcycle Expo.
"I am in a corner like this just getting beat up," Duran tells the investigator in the video. "I say, 'Just stop it, stop it,' and I see my guys, we are getting beat down."
Without hesitation Duran, known as Kong and a Colorado Department of Corrections officer, took police though the deadly sequence of events on the stairway when he pulled out his gun.
"I said, 'Everybody get back, get back, just leave us alone.' And one Mongol just came and punched me, continued to punch me four times. I said, 'Stop it, stop it, leave me alone' … 'boom,' I discharged a weapon."
Then he says one of the Mongols motorcycle club members fired at him.
"Some guy came up and pointed a gun at me, 'boom,' shot center mass and it grazed me," Duran said. "Before he could get a chance to take a second shot, I shot him, 'boom.'"
As a Mongol was being carried downstairs Duran said he went to police. He said he told the officer, "I shot back in self-defense, here's my weapon."
Duran said he was in fear for his life and the others in his motorcycle club, later expressing regret that someone died.
"That person had someone out there who loved them, and right now I just want to go home to my little boys," Duran said.
With no one agreeing to speak from the Mongols, the decision was made that no charges would be filed against Duran or anyone else.
Being quite emotional at times, Duran told detectives he could have run or could have stayed and gotten killed with his brothers trapped below. He said he did what he felt he had to do and did not apologize for defending himself.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
