Neo-Nazi gang affiliates attacked a mixed-race family in Martindale, only one was arrested

From the Texas Observer:

On June 22, a hot summer day, a group of 10 family members and friends were wrapping up a tubing trip on the San Marcos River at Don’s Fish Camp in the Central Texas town of Martindale when they were violently attacked by members or supporters of a neo-Nazi prison gang, according to eyewitness videos, interviews with victims, and publicly available records, photos, and other information.

The group of family and friends included three members who were not white, according to interviews, and they were there to celebrate a birthday—something they had done many times in the past. The physical attack apparently began, video shows, after a brief verbal altercation. Several of the victims, who requested not to be named due to serious safety concerns, said that at least one member of the neo-Nazi group referred to a mixed-race teenager, the son of the woman whose birthday was being celebrated, as “Tarzan” after he went to use a rope swing, which the victim group understood as a racial epithet.

The birthday group had just finished tubing on the river—a favorite Texas pastime in the summer heat—before the physical attack, which included punching and shoving, left at least two members of their group injured. In video recorded of the incident, someone can be heard yelling “white power.”

“I am afraid to go back,” one victim told the Texas Observer. “I definitely won’t go back, and if anyone I know is planning to, I will probably tell them what happened to me to discourage them from going.”

Members of the birthday group reported the incident to police, and local law enforcement from the Caldwell County Constable’s office arrived on the scene after the incident and arrested one person, Todd Jeremy Christian, a 45-year-old with an Austin address, on Class A misdemeanor charges for assault causing bodily injury, according to a police report the Observer obtained via a public information request. The report categorized the assault as a gang-related crime motivated by “Anti-Multi-Racial Group” bias.

While only Christian was arrested, video evidence shows at least eight people were involved in the apparent assault on the group of family and friends. Of those eight, the Observer and Bellingcat have identified five—including Christian—as members or supporters of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), a white supremacist prison gang founded in the 1980s that is unrelated to the original Aryan Brotherhood.

Caldwell County District Attorney Fred Weber told the Observer that the “incident and circumstances leading up to the assault remain under investigation” and that “if warranted by the evidence additional charges may be filed.” Weber said he could not comment on whether additional suspects beyond Christian had been identified.

Don’s Fish Camp released a statement on its Facebook page describing the incident as “horrendous” and said the business is working closely with authorities. “These people are banned from Don’s for LIFE,” the statement reads. “We had no idea that these kinds of people were going to be a problem we just helped them like we do all of our customers. Our hearts go out to anyone who was negatively impacted by this awful incident. We stand behind those seeking justice. As far as we are concerned [the perpetrators] need to be removed from Texas … unfortunately bad people still exist in 2024.”

To identify those who participated in the attack but were not arrested, the Observer and Bellingcat reviewed eyewitness videos to identify possible suspects, noting distinct features such as tattoos. These features were then compared to images and videos on social media, as well as public criminal records, to confirm their identities. Based on that analysis, the outlets identified five of the participants as members or supporters of the ABT, whose neo-Nazi members typically join the gang in prison.

In a now-deleted Reddit post, one victim described how a “neo-nazi gang” with “their shirts off with swastika and other nazi symbols” held their friends underwater. One victim suffered a concussion, facial swelling, and a bruised retina resulting in partial vision loss, while another received a bruised eye, according to interviews with the victims. At least two sought medical attention after the attack.

The Observer acquired footage of the attack recorded by an eyewitness and verified the Reddit post’s claims with the victims. Video appears to show individuals who were part of the group that included the ABT members or supporters instigating the fight, which lasted approximately two minutes and took place in a part of the San Marcos River that is only a few feet deep. In the footage, apparent perpetrators seem to submerge two of the victims underwater.

The Observer and Bellingcat’s investigation identified the following individuals as having participated in the attack and as being either members or supporters of ABT: Cameron Christopher Gerrow, 30; Todd Jeremy Christian, 45; Thomas Dylan Mashburn, 33; James Edward “Buzz” Turner, 50; and Aubrea Faye Herpeche, 28. The outlets also identified a sixth person who participated in the attack: Angela Danielle Burkham, 42, who associates with ABT members or supporters but has not, within the scope of the outlets’ review, expressed explicit support. Another man and woman pictured in videos and described by witnesses remain unidentified.

Christian, Gerrow, and Mashburn all apparently belong to a motorcycle club affiliated with the ABT, called the “Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Motorcycle Club” (ABTMC), based on public records, tattoos, social media, and other information reviewed for this story.

The trio frequently appear together in photos and videos posted to social media wearing motorcycle vests with patches that are associated with the ABTMC, including ones with explicitly neo-Nazi designs like SS lightning bolts and the slogan “14/88”, Norse symbology like Thor’s hammer, and ABT symbology like the shield symbol and the initials “ABT”. Many members, including Gerrow, also have a patch that reads “In Memory KT 1979-2022”, a reference to Brian Keith “KT” Turner, an ABT member who was killed after allegedly threatening and then following a man who displayed LBGTQ+ bumper stickers.

Extremism experts describe the ABT as a crime syndicate and one of the nation’s largest prison gangs. Dozens of ABT members have faced indictment for various criminal acts in recent years, including hate crimes.

“In terms of membership, there aren’t concrete numbers,” said Chris Magyarics, a research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. “But we’re talking in the 2,000 range. No other white supremacist group comes even close to having membership numbers that high.”

The physical attack in Martindale appears to have started, according to video footage, when one of the victims put her hands up to deescalate the situation. Gerrow then ran into the victims, knocked several into the water, and proceeded to punch the victims in the water.

According to Travis County court records, Gerrow served prison time for 2014 convictions on methamphetamine possession and burglary charges. (Because ABT members generally join the gang while in prison, information about past nonviolent felony convictions is included in this story as an indication of their access to joining the gang.)

“I don’t know nothing about it,” Gerrow told the Observer when reached for comment. “Like there was a scuffle, but it was nothing crazy.”

Footage of the incident clearly shows Gerrow throwing punches.

Gerrow has a tattoo on his stomach of a sword on top of a swastika and shield with SS lightning bolts on top that strongly resembles the symbol used by the ABT. He did not respond when asked whether he is a member of that organization.

Mike German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and a former FBI agent who once worked undercover to infiltrate white supremacist groups in the 1990s, verified that the tattoos Gerrow has are associated with gang membership.

“Members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas often get tattoos that indicate membership or affiliation with the group,” German said in an interview. “It would be very dangerous for somebody to get that tattoo who wasn’t a member. There are even reports of members of the gangs actually cutting off the tattoos of people who have somehow failed to live up to their responsibilities.”

One second after Gerrow ran into the group, Christian threw a punch, hitting a woman in the face, as shown in the video footage.

According to a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) online criminal history database and county court records, Christian has previously been arrested on assault charges and was convicted on a felony prohibited weapons charge in 2003. An Austin American-Statesman news article included in an FBI report described Christian as a “gang member” and stated that a senior ABT leader was accused of ordering a botched hit on Christian in 2002.

According to the June 22 police report from the Precinct 3 Caldwell County Constable, Michael Bell, Christian was the only individual arrested for his role in the violent incident at the river. A misdemeanor charge is pending, and Christian could not be reached for comment despite multiple phone calls to numbers associated with his name.

“At this time, the case has been turned in to the DA’s office,” Bell told the Observer. “They handle all the media comments and open records requests, so I really can’t make a comment on it right now.”

Eleven seconds into video footage of the fight, Mashburn entered the fray and began to punch the victims. According to Erath County court records, Mashburn was convicted in 2015 on a felony charge for the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance. He has a tattoo on his back of SS lightning bolts and the term “Aryan Soldier.” Calls and messages directed to a phone number and an email address associated with Mashburn went unanswered.

Sixteen seconds into video footage of the fight, Turner began to throw punches. According to a patch seen in social media photos, Turner is the club president of the “Terror Squad MC” (TSMC), another motorcycle club affiliated with the ABT that regularly appears in social media posts with ABTMC members. The TSMC logo consists of a Celtic Cross with a Ku Klux Klan-style blood drop in its center, overlaid on crossed ball-peen hammers in the style of the Hammerskins, another white supremacist group with roots in Dallas. A photo found on TikTok shows Turner wearing a vest featuring a patch that reads “Aryan Brotherhood Supporter.”

The day after the attack, Turner posted a negative review of Don’s Fish Camp on Facebook, writing “it.was a cool place to.hang.out but the owner is lier [sic].” He later deleted it. A message left on Turner’s voicemail went unreturned.

Eleven seconds into video footage of the fight, Herpeche enters the fray. A woman who Gerrow initially knocked into then pushes Herpeche, who responds with punches. After a minute and a half, Herpeche is seen throwing down another woman into the water.

Photos and videos on social media and county records indicate Herpeche is married to Gerrow. A social media post shows Herpeche wearing an ABT hat and an ABTMC vest. Herpeche did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

Forty-seven seconds into the video footage and after things had settled down, Burkham walks into frame and proceeds to push a man in the face. She is dragged backwards by Herpeche, but after she’s released she walks toward a woman and appears to hit her, seemingly instigating a second round of violence. Burkham frequently appears in social media content alongside Christian and with wives of ABT members, though she does not appear to have ABT-affiliated tattoos or to have posted images of herself wearing ABT-affiliated clothing.

Burkham did not respond to requests for comment.

The Observer also identified and reached Melinda Coldiron, a woman who was present with the ABT-affiliated group at Don’s Fish Camp but did not participate in the brawl. In a phone call, Coldiron said that her group was called “white trash” at one point. “I’m not really even sure what happened,” Coldiron said. “I know we was having fun one minute, the next minute everybody was fighting.”

Coldiron said she is friends with Turner. Regarding the neo-Nazi tattoos seen on members of the group she was with, whom she described as “friends of my friend,” Coldiron said, “We can’t help the tattoos they got while they were away. … Nobody is like that anymore.”

When asked about the ABT insignia featured on some of the group members’ motorcycle club vests in recent social media posts, Coldiron said, “They don’t seem like that type of people to me, because they seem like they put together a group that keeps people out of trouble.”

In February, four months before the Martindale incident, Coldiron appeared in a photo alongside Turner in which both were performing the Nazi salute. Coldiron did not comment directly about the photo when it was described to her.

The Observer and Bellingcat were unable to identify two others who took part in the attack, which remains under investigation. One of these two has one or more neo-Nazi-affiliated tattoos.

“I think it’s important that the identities of these individuals be revealed mainly for a sense of safety and protection for the public,” one victim told the Observer in a text message. “These men and women are present in our everyday lives and were so emboldened by lack of accountability that they initiated a violent attack on women and multi-race individuals in broad daylight because they thought they could cover their hateful tattoos and walk away and go back to their regular lives without consequences. And that should never be able to happen again, for the safety of everyone, the protection of our communities, and justice for my family and friends.”

Robin Blackburn of the Caldwell/Hays Examiner and volunteers from Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project contributed reporting to this article.