A man previously identified as a leader in a “vicious” white supremacist gang was one of three inmates killed earlier this week in a Nevada prison fight, officials said.
Zackaria Luz, 43, died after the fight Tuesday at Ely State Prison in eastern Nevada, the White Pine County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.
Luz, who prison officials said was serving a term of seven to 18 years on a racketeering conviction, was identified by authorities in 2019 as a street captain of the Aryan Warriors, a Nevada-based street and prison gang responsible for what a law enforcement official described in a news conference at the time as “some of the worst crimes committed in our community.”
Neither the Pine County Sheriff’s Office nor the Nevada Department of Corrections have said what started the prison fight, which the sheriff’s office said was reported at 9:41 a.m.
In a news release Wednesday, the Nevada Department of Corrections said an investigation into the incident is ongoing and the prison remains on lockdown.
A second inmate, Connor Brown, was also fatally injured in the fight, the sheriff’s office said. Brown, 22, was serving seven to 20 years for robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, according to the release.
Authorities were still working to notify next-of-kin for the third inmate and did not identify him, the sheriff’s office said.
Nine inmates were injured in the fight, including several who were flown out of the Ely area for medical attention, the sheriff’s office said.
Luz was one of nearly two dozen people with ties to the Aryan Warriors who were charged in a sprawling 2019 racketeering indictment that included multiple allegations of murder, drug trafficking, extortion and fraud, Daniel Neill, an assistant special agent in charge with Drug Enforcement Agency, told reporters at the time.
Neill said the investigation that led to the indictment began after gang members allegedly robbed a drug dealer and carried out a double homicide.
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