In the early morning hours of a June weekend in 2002, Joshua William Harber, a 25-year-old male, was fatally shot outside a bar in the Phoenix area. The incident occurred around 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, June 8, 2002, outside the Coyote Wild Bar & Grill. Harber, a resident of Ventura County, California, and a mason by trade, was a relatively new member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, having joined about six months prior to his death.
Harber had traveled to Arizona with five other
members of his club for what police believed was a social outing. While outside the bar, he was approached by an unidentified man. After a brief conversation, the man shot Harber in the face and fled the scene. Harber was transported to John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, where he died later that day.
Phoenix Police Department's organized-crime detectives launched an investigation into the homicide. One of the primary theories explored was that the shooting was connected to an ongoing and violent feud between the Hells Angels and the rival Mongols motorcycle gang. This animosity had recently escalated during a deadly shootout at a casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Another possibility investigators considered was that the motive was internal to the Hells Angels, with some speculation that Harber may have wanted to leave the club.
Witnesses at the bar, a known hangout for Hells Angels members, provided a description of the shooter as a white male, approximately 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 240 pounds, who was wearing a black leather coat. He was reportedly seen leaving the area in a red Honda CRX or Civic. Despite this description, no arrests have ever been made in the case, and it remains an unsolved homicide. Over the years, Harber's family has continued to seek justice, increasing a reward for information that could lead to an arrest. His mother has expressed the family's deep-seated need for answers and closure in the death of her son.
