Suspect who fled shooting at Boise hospital is member of Aryan Knights. Who are they?

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — A man suspected to be at the center of an early Wednesday attack on Idaho Department of Correction officers at a Boise hospital is a member of a prison gang known as the Aryan Knights, according to police, a group of white supremacists closely tied to Idaho.

IDOC officers were preparing to transport Skylar Meade, 31, back to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, where he’d been treated for self-inflicted injuries, when another suspect, identified as 28-year-old Nicholas Umphenour, attacked the officers in the ambulance bay and shot two of them at around 2 a.m., according to Boise police and IDOC. Police said they’re continuing to search for the suspects, who fled in a vehicle before police arrived.

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Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar described Meade at a news conference as a documented member of the Aryan Knights gang. Photos showed Meade with “AK” tattooed on his stomach, as well as the number “1” on one side of his face and “11” on the other. Winegar said the numbers represent A, the first letter of the alphabet, and K, the 11th.

The Aryan Knights is a white supremacist gang founded in Idaho in the 1990s that operates primarily in Idaho prisons, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Idaho. The Anti-Defamation League said the types of tattoos described on Meade are common among its members.

Idaho State Police issued a Blue Alert, which is used for suspects who injured law enforcement and are believed to be a public threat, for Meade on Wednesday morning.

In 2021, the U.S. attorney’s office said the Aryan Knights have expanded to more than 100 members, both in and out of IDOC custody. IDOC Director Josh Tewalt told the Idaho Statesman that “specific numbers are unknown.”

The office said the group was founded to organize criminal activity for a select group of white prisoners by using violence and threats to target other prisoners, particularly people of color. Members shared the revenue made from the group’s drug trafficking, primarily methamphetamine, extortion and gambling activities, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The gang’s leader, Harlan Hale, was sentenced to life in federal prison in 2021 for racketeering charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Idaho’s current U.S. attorney, Josh Hurwit, took the lead on the federal prosecution against Hale.

“The life sentence imposed on this defendant recognizes the devastating effects that prison gangs, and especially white supremacist prison gangs, have on the rehabilitative mission of correctional institutions and individual inmates who sincerely hope to use their period of incarceration to successfully reenter society,” said then-U.S. Attorney Rafael M. Gonzalez said in a 2021 news release.