Van Kills Biker After Confrontation

NORTHRIDGE —  A motorcyclist riding with a large group was hit by a van and killed after a parking lot argument escalated into a violent chase along Reseda Boulevard early Saturday morning, police said.

Dino Murphone, a 49-year-old motorcycle enthusiast from San Fernando, died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center from injuries he suffered when the van ran into his bike.

The van’s driver initially drove away but turned himself in later that morning. As of Saturday night he was being held in the biker’s death, said homicide Det. John Fleming, with the Los Angeles Police Department. Police would not release the suspect’s name.

Murphone, described by friends as “being good at who he was,” was a member of the Sundowners motorcycle organization, based in San Fernando. The Sundowners have been called both a biker club and a biker gang by law enforcement agencies. Several members were arrested on drug and weapons charges after a raid on their clubhouse in 1988, but “their hell-raising days are over,” said San Fernando Police Sgt. Michael Harvey.

On Friday night, 15 to 20 members of the Sundowners, many big, bearded men in ripped denim jackets, gathered at a bar near Roscoe Boulevard and Tampa Avenue. Shortly after midnight, the group got into an argument outside the bar with the driver of a van, according to a police statement.

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The argument--police said it was unclear what it was about--continued as the bikers and the van left the parking lot and drove east on Roscoe Boulevard.

When the group turned north at Reseda Boulevard, the van began swerving across lanes in an apparent attempt to clip the bikers, police said.

Along its path, the van caused minor collisions between several of the motorcyclists and two nearby pickup trucks.

The van then smashed into Murphone and another biker in the 8400 block of Reseda Boulevard, police said. One of the two motorcycles caught fire. The van kept driving.

The second biker, whom police would not identify, sustained head and leg injuries and was in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital Saturday night, police said.

Detectives interviewed more than 10 witnesses to the chase and said they’re still piecing together what provoked the violence.

“You talk to one group of people, you hear one thing; you talk to another group of people, you hear something else,” Fleming said.

Outside the blue brick Sundowners clubhouse Saturday evening, several men with long beards and tattooed arms shook their heads and exchanged angry glances.

“Dino was a caring brother,” said one man who asked not to be identified. “He didn’t mean any trouble.

“That’s the thing about riding motorcycles,” the man said. “People always think the worst about you even if you haven’t done anything wrong.”