In the spring of 1993, a violent outburst at a Colorado Springs bar cut short the life of Paul Robert 'PK' Klein. The 40-year-old male was managing Jim and I's Star Bar, a known hangout for bikers, on the evening of April 17th. It was a night that would end in a hail of gunfire, leaving two dead and several others wounded. Klein, a full-time member of the Sons of Silence motorcycle club, was shot multiple times and later died during surgery.
The man responsible for the carnage was Eugene Herbert Baylis. Armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, four hand grenades, and two handguns, Baylis entered the bar and opened fire. The chaos that erupted saw patrons scrambling for cover as bullets flew. Amidst the pandemonium, another patron, 33-year-old Steven Fairfax, was also shot and killed. The shooting spree only ceased when a police officer shot and wounded Baylis at the scene.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Eugene Baylis was arrested and faced murder charges. His defense centered on a claim of self-defense, alleging that Klein had shot him with a pellet gun earlier that same day. He maintained that his intention in going to the bar was to detain Klein until the police arrived. In a surprising turn of events, a jury acquitted Baylis of the murder charges in 1995. Despite the acquittal, Baylis would later be sentenced to three years in prison on federal weapons charges. His life ultimately ended in a violent confrontation with Bureau of Land Management officers in May 2018, when he was killed in a shootout.
