The racist violence occurred at Don’s Fish Camp.

A group including members and/or supporters of a violent prison gang attacked a multiracial group on June 22 on the San Marcos River in Martindale at Don’s Fish Camp. Local authorities issued no press releases or statements about the incident, the only media covering it have been social media, and only one apparent attacker was arrested. However, the Texas Observer and investigative journalism group Bellingcat were able to obtain videos of the incident and analyzed the footage, public photos, and other information. The outlets have identified six of the eight alleged attackers and discovered their potential links to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT).

The Incident

A victim of the attack – whose name the Examiner is not publishing out of safety concerns – said in a social media post that people in the group had tattoos of swastikas and other neo-Nazi symbols that looked like home or prison tattoos. The victim said a member of the group started yelling racial epithets at the victim’s multiracial son. The victim got their son out of the situation and tried to move away from the person yelling at them, but the group surrounded the victims (a group of 10 people, the Observer reports) and hit a woman. When her companions rushed to help her get up, according to the social media post, the group attacked them from behind.

Based on video from bystanders obtained by the Observer and Bellingcat, the physical attack seems to have begun after a brief altercation when one of the victims “put her hands up to deescalate the situation.” One of the attackers then ran into the victims, knocking some of them into the water and then punching them. The Observer notes that in the video, members of the group including ABT members or supporters appear to start the fight. The footage reportedly shows the attackers submerging two of the victims in the shallow waters of the San Marcos River. The Observer reports that at least two victims were injured.

The only person to get arrested was Todd Jeremy Christian, age 45, who was charged with assault causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor, according to the probable cause affidavit for his arrest obtained by the Examiner. The affidavit said Christian committed assault by “intentionally striking” the victim “with a closed fist causing pain and swelling to her right side of her face and lip.” Caldwell County officials said two other members of the group received citations but did not give their names. The incident report indicated that the perpetrators were from a gang and that the motivation for the attack was “anti-multi-racial group” bias.

“He appears to be from Austin,” District Attorney Fred Weber said of Christian, “and I do not find anything indicating that we have previously dealt with him in Caldwell County. In fact, I do not believe anyone involved is a local resident.”

Responses After the Attack

Don’s took to social media and apologized for the incident days after it happened:

“In response to the horrendous events that happened on our property recently: We don’t condone any of this behavior. This is absolutely appalling and horrendous that something like this could happened [sic] on our property,” the tube rental company  posted on Facebook. “We are working closely with authorities. These people are banned from Don’s for LIFE and we had no idea that these kind of people were going to be a problem we just [sic] helped them like we do all of our customers. Our hearts go out to anyone who was negatively impacted by this awful experience. We stand behind those seeking justice. As far as we are concerned they need to be removed and banned from Texas. This absolutely breaks our hearts that something like this could happened [sic]. We love our customers and we just try to help everyone have a good time but unfortunately bad people still exist in 2024.”

Sources in Martindale have said that both Precinct 3 Constable Mike Bell’s office and Caldwell County Sheriff’s deputies were on scene. Yet despite a routine practice of issuing statements about incidents in Caldwell County – including press releases about calls for discharged firearms and recovering stolen property – neither agency has publicly acknowledged the racially motivated assault at Don’s. After Christian was arrested, his mugshot never appeared on the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office app, which posts press releases, mugshots, names, and other informationabout incidents and arrestees.

 Sonja Villalobos, who served as Mayor Pro Tem in Martindale until earlier this year, contrasted local law enforcement interest in May in tracking down a few Latino teens accused of misdemeanor spray painting with authorities’ recent silence in finding the perpetrators of the Aryan Brotherhood attack. 

“They will get Fox 7 to broadcast a story seeking to identify suspects for graffiti, and post all over Facebook about it – subjecting these minors to threats and a witch hunt – yet nothing seeking to identify suspects from a violent hate group that punched a female in the face?” Villalobos pondered.

Moreover, one of the victims posted on social media days after the attack that the law enforcement officers said they would make arrests, but the victim had not seen that they had filed a report. More than a week after the incident, the victim said they still had not received a copy of an incident report or any other updates. (After seeing the victim’s post, the Examiner emailed Weber about the lack of follow-up and lack of transparency, and he said victim services would be reaching out to the victim.)

When contacted by the Examiner about the incident, Caldwell County Precinct 3 Commissioner Ed Theriot responded, “I am aware of the incident and, to the best of my knowledge, the matter is still under investigation by Constable Bell’s office. … I believe everyone is working to make sure that this incident is investigated as thoroughly and as expeditiously as possible.”

What is the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas?

The ABT is a criminal organization that began in the Texas prison system. Only people in prison can join the gang, the Observer notes; any mention of felony convictions in this reporting is only to indicate eligibility for ABT membership.  

Though they are united by white supremacist ideology, criminology doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Alejandro Beutel said they also have a strong profit motive.

“They basically act as a mix of a street gang, prison gang, and organized crime group and don’t hesitate to work with individuals and other groups, including racial/ethnic minorities, if it helps line their pocketbooks further.”

A 2003 FBI report on the ABT says that the gang has entered into agreements with racial and ethnic minority gangs, with one ABT member saying, “The color of money is green.”

Beutel said that ABT members “often lack individual restraint” and are known for engaging in violence in even petty disputes with outsiders and, sometimes, other members.  

Daryl Johnson, former senior domestic terrorism analyst at the Department of Homeland Security, said the ABT is known for such violence.

“They are also known for confrontations with rival gangs, law enforcement, and their own members they suspect of
being informants,” Johnson said.

The ABT has engaged in a variety of illegal activities, including the trafficking of drugs including methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana; firearms trafficking; contract killings; prostitution; and check and credit card fraud, according to the aforementioned FBI report on the gang. The proceeds from these activities are used to financially support the ABT, including incarcerated members. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says that ABT members can often be identified by their tattoos, though some members avoid getting tattoos because they could be segregated from the general population in prison. Tattoos indicating ABT membership include a shield with a sword and sometimes a swastika, “AB,” “12” (because A and B are the first and second letters of the alphabet), and variants of the “12” tattoo. 

Beutel noted that the group’s tattoos or clothing patches indicating the ABT’s ideology make them easy for outsiders, including law enforcement, to notice. Those were the kinds of details that the Observer and Bellingcat paid attention to in their investigation of videos and images of the attackers. (Ironically, the SPLC profile of the group says that “Unlike many other more flamboyant racist prison gangs, members of the ABT pride themselves on anonymity and their ability to blend in the general population as ‘suburban gangsters’ on the outside.”) 

Identifying the ABT Members and Associates

As Weber had postulated, none of the people the Observer and Bellingcat were able to identify as ABT members or supporters who participated in the violence at Don’s are from Caldwell County (though the Observer notes that two other individuals seen in photos and videos, a man and a woman, are unidentified). The Observer and Bellingcat reviewed videos from eyewitnesses and compared features from those images (such as tattoos) with images and videos from social media and publicly available criminal records. Based on that analysis, the outlets identified five of the participants as either members or supporters of the ABT: Christian; James Edward “Buzz” Turner, 50; Cameron Christopher Gerrow, 30; Thomas Dylan Mashburn, 33; and Aubrea Herpeche, 28. A sixth person the outlets identified who participated in the attack is Angela Burkham, 42, who associates with ABT members or supporters but has not, as far as the outlets’ research showed, expressed explicit support.

The sole arrestee in the incident – Christian – has a long criminal history. The Austin American-Statesman named Christian in 2003 as the target of a hit gone wrong that a higher-up in the ABT had organized. Christian himself faced charges for shooting at his attackers, the article said. 

Turner is shown throwing punches about 16 seconds into the video of the incident, the Observer reports. Turner had a cover photo on his Facebook profile of nearly 30 people in matching shirts and motorcycle jackets standing together outside a bar making a hand signal associated with the ABT.

A closeup of the photo reveals patches on several biker jackets that are similar to the ABT insignia, along with patches that say “G.F.B.D.” – “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t,” a slogan the ABT uses. At least one person in the photo is wearing a T-shirt that says “Aryan” across the top. 

The Examiner found the photo, which has since been removed as Turner’s cover photo, after Turner left a “do not recommend” review on the Examiner’s Facebook page on June 29. He deleted the review and changed his cover photo after our publisher replied, “Aryan Brotherhood, eh?” (The Observer reports that the day after the attack, Turner posted a negative review on Don’s Fish Camp’s Facebook page, writing “it.was a cool place to.hang.out but the owner is lier [sic].” He later deleted that review as well.) 

A comparison of that photo with images obtained by the Observer indicates that the biker jackets are similar to those worn by a club called the “Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Motorcycle Club” (ABTMC) – a group to which Christian, Gerrow, and Mashburn appear to belong. The Observer reports that Turner is president of the “Terror Squad MC,” another motorcycle club that supports the ABT and whose members are often seen in photos with members of the ABTMC.

Turner’s status was determined from social media photos that included a patch indicating his club presidency. The Observer also reports that a photo on TikTok shows Turner in a vest decorated with a patch reading “Aryan Brotherhood Supporter.”

The Observer identified Gerrow as the person who ran into the victims, knocking some into the water and then punching them. Citing Travis County court records, the Observer reports that Gerrow had served time for two felony charges. 

Mashburn is seen joining the fight 11 seconds into the video of the incident, the Observer reports. The video shows him punching the victims. Erath County court records show that Mashburn was convicted on a felony charge, the Observer found.

While Mashburn starts punching some of the victims, Herpeche becomes involved, the video shows. The Observer reports that one of the women Gerrow had run into pushes Herpeche, who starts punching her. Later, the video shows Herpeche throwing another woman into the river. The Observer reports that Herpeche appears to be married to Gerrow, and she has been seen in photos wearing ABT and ABTMC gear.

After the situation appeared to have calmed down, the Observer reports, Burkham is seen pushing a man in the face. Herpeche drags her backwards, but she eventually walks toward a woman and appears to hit her, “seemingly sparking another round of violence,” the Observer reports.

The Observer notes that Burkham has a distinctive tattoo and was seen often in social media content with Christian and ABT members’ wives. 

The Observer also identified Melinda Coldiron, who was with the ABT-affiliated group but did not take part in the violence. In a phone interview with the Observer, Coldiron said her group was called “white trash” at some point. 

Coldiron, who said she is friends with Turner, said that despite the neo-Nazi tattoos on some of the people she was with, “Nobody is like that anymore.”

The Observer said that in February, Coldiron appeared in a photo with Turner. Both were making the Nazi salute. Coldiron had no direct comments about the photo, the Observer reported. 

What Happens Next?

Weber told the Examiner that the case has been handed over to a prosecutor. When asked if the case might be prosecuted as a hate crime, Weber said that he did not yet have enough information to determine that – and even if it is classified as a hate crime, the punishment would not really change.

“Typically, a hate crime enhancement bumps the punishment range up one degree.  The exception is a Class A misdemeanor,” Weber said. “Class A misdemeanors typically carry a punishment range of up to one year in jail. The hate crime enhancement on a Class A does not change the degree or the maximum sentence of 1 year. It only sets out a minimum of 180 days.”

Communicating with the Observer in a text message, one of the attack victims said, “I think it’s important that the identities of these individuals be revealed mainly for a sense of safety and protection for the public. 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.”

Author’s note: The Examiner is grateful to Steven Monacelli and the Texas Observer for sharing information with us and allowing us to contribute to their article. Tristan Lee and volunteers from Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project also contributed reporting to the Observer article cited in this piece.  

BY ROBIN BLACKBURN