Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 62-year-old man in connection with Saturday night’s shooting at a fundraiser for families of cancer patients.
Derek Warren Harms, a member of the Ghostriders motorcycle club, told detectives he and others in the club had been invited to meet with members of the Bandidos motorcycle club to “work out prior misunderstandings,” court documents state.
He arrived at the Metal Fest fundraiser at Uncle Sam’s American Bar and Grill, 16003 Pacific Ave. S., Spanaway, with two others. The Bandidos participate in events for an umbrella fundraising group called Bikers Fighting Cancer.
Harms said he was helping his club’s president, who is blind, toward the bar when two of the Bandidos demanded he and the Ghostriders “give up their colors or they will ‘shoot them off,’” court documents state.
Harms said he saw one of the men reach behind his back and thought he was getting a gun.
Harms – who had a loaded gun with him and several bullets in his pockets – fired his weapon, wounding one man who was struck by two bullet fragments in his arm and shoulder. He was taken to Tacoma General Hospital for treatment.
Harms, a convicted felon, was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and second-degree possession of a firearm. He was ordered held in the Pierce County Jail on $250,000 bail.
stacey.mulick @thenewstribune.com
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