Sixteen members of a Georgia motorcycle gang have been indicted on charges stemming from a shooting that injured two people last year in a hotel parking lot, authorities said Monday.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said his office's gang prosecution unit will take the lead in prosecuting the case in Bryan County.
The indictment in Bryan County Superior Court charges 16 people with multiple violations of Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. Some were charged with aggravated assault and attempted armed robbery, while others were charged with conspiring to commit those crimes.
All of the defendants are members of the southeast Georgia chapter of the Outcast motorcycle gang, Carr's office said in a news release. The indictment, handed down by a grand jury Wednesday, says Outcast members plotted to rob members of a rival gang of their motorcycle vests.
Outcast members held rival gang members at gunpoint at Flacos House Bar & Grill and the Red Roof Inn on U.S. 17 in Richmond Hill on June 17 and ordered the men to hand over their vests, according to the indictment. Shots were fired in the parking lot along a highway dotted with hotels, gas stations and fast-food restaurants. No one was killed, but police said two people were injured.
Carr's office said authorities executed more than 40 search warrants across southeast Georgia as part of their investigation and seized $180,000 in cash as well as 71 guns.
According to the attorney general's office, Outcast is considered an outlaw, or "one-percenter," motorcycle gang. Other outlaw gangs include the Hell's Angels, the Pagans, the Vandals, Sin City Disciples and the Chosen Few.
The Outcast gang has 67 chapters across the country, including four in Georgia. Founded in 1967 in Michigan, the second Outcast chapter was formed in Atlanta. Additional chapters are located in Augusta, Hawkinsville and Savannah.
Those indicted included the gang's president, Melaun Arturi Aiken, 46; Vice President Eddie Latson, 43; Secretary Lee Alan Mole, 58; Michael Randolph, 43, the gang's business manager; and Donovan Scott, 35, the chapter's sergeant at arms.