White supremacist gang leader involved in controversial prison riot dead after latest 'altercation,' 2 fellow inmates also killed

The Ely State Prison in Nevada (YouTube/KLAS). Inset left to right: Deceased inmates Zakaria Luz and Connor Brown (Nevada Department of Corrections).

Three men are dead including Zackaria Luz, the leader of a white supremacist prison gang known as the Aryan Warriors, after a fight broke out inside Nevada ‘s maximum-security Ely State Prison. According to local authorities, Luz was the same individual involved in a prison riot at a different facility in 2021.

Ely State Prison is now under lockdown and the Nevada Department of Corrections website states that all visitation at every facility in the state is stopped until further notice. NDOC referred to the event as an “altercation.”

Luz, 43, was killed Tuesday. NDOC did not share a motive or reason for the fight and a request for comment to the White Pine County Sheriff’s Office did not provide any further detail. Sheriffs from White Pine County told Law&Crime in a statement via email that they were the first to respond to the prison when the altercation erupted on Tuesday close to 10 a.m. Medical personnel were also dispatched to assist.

Nine other inmates were injured but no officers were hurt, NDOC said Wednesday.

Also killed during the fight was Ely inmate Connor Brown, 22. A third inmate killed was not identified as authorities contact next-of-kin.

Luz was serving 7 to 18 years for racketeering and forgery and Brown was serving 7 to 20 years for robbery with the use of a deadly weapon with a deadly weapon enhancement.

Local CBS affiliate KLAS reported that the third inmate killed was also a member of the Aryan Warriors and that concerns over retaliation at Ely are ongoing since the “altercation” appears to have been sparked by a gang feud inside the facility.

That outlet was also first to report Wednesday that Luz was previously involved in a chaotic December 2021 prison riot at Nevada’s medium-security facility known as the Southern Desert Correctional Center. It is roughly 280 miles away from Ely State Prison.

Luz was booked on drug charges there and during the 2021 riot, KLAS reported that he was accused of emptying trash bins, filling them with water and then using those bins to resist officers or deter them from quelling the disturbance. When the December 2021 riot occurred at Southern Desert Correction Center, NDOC initially referred to it in a press release as a “disturbance” and stated that “nearly 25 inmates in one unit at Southern Desert Correctional Center refused to enter their cells or follow orders.”

“The offenders also started two small fires, which were extinguished before causing significant damage. Minor injuries were reported and treated onsite. The investigation is ongoing, and no further details are available at this time, ” NDOC said in 2021,

However, a five-month investigation in 2022 by KLAS found the initial descriptions may have downplayed what occurred. Though NDOC claimed only 20 to 25 inmates were responsible for the 2021 “disturbance,” reporters uncovered that at least 40 inmates were considered direct participants. While NDOC claimed injuries were minor and treated on-site, the outlet learned one officer was hit in the head with a rock and at least one inmate was hospitalized. Tasers, pepper balls, flashbangs and grenades equipped with chemical spray were also reportedly used.

Paul Lunkwitz, president of Fraternal Order of Police Nevada C.O. Lodge 21, a union that represents correctional officers, told the outlet in May 2022 that when he spoke to officers involved in the 2021 riot, “every single person that I talked to expressed the same thing.”

“I didn’t know if I was going home to my family that night, I didn’t know if we all were going to make it out alive,” Lunkwitz recalled them saying before suggesting that officials may not be interested in having their shortcomings aired out publicly.

He did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Thursday.

Notably, NDOC also claimed in 2021 that the riot at the Southern Desert Correctional Center had started around 1 p.m. but KLAS said its investigators learned that the incident kicked off up to six hours earlier.

NDOC told Law&Crime Thursday that an investigation is ongoing at Ely State Prison.

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