White supremacist gang member involved in fatal Nevada prison brawl had previously murdered an inmate in 2016

In Reno, Nevada, authorities confirmed that one of the three inmates killed in a prison brawl this week was Anthony Williams, a member of a white supremacist prison gang. Williams, 41, was serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 2016 murder of another inmate at a different Nevada prison. The brawl took place at Nevada’s maximum security prison in Ely on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of three inmates and injuries to nine others.

White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henriod revealed that all three deceased individuals suffered fatal injuries from multiple sharp force injuries during the incident. The other two victims were identified as Connor Brown, 22, from South Lake Tahoe, California, and Zacharia Luz, 42, from Las Vegas. Luz, a street-level leader of the Aryan Warriors gang, was previously implicated in a racketeering case in Las Vegas in 2019.

Williams and Luz were linked to the 2016 stabbing death of Andrew Ryan Thurgood at High Desert State Prison in southern Nevada. Williams pleaded guilty to the murder in 2021 and received a life sentence without parole, while Luz was sentenced to seven to 18 years for racketeering and forgery charges.

Brown, who was serving a seven- to 20-year sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon, had pleaded guilty to stabbing a gas station clerk and a casino patron in Reno in 2020. The motive behind the violence at the prison this week remains unclear, and authorities have not provided further details regarding the incident.

Ely State Prison, located about 40 miles west of the Utah line, houses the state’s death row inmates and an unused lethal injection chamber. The Nevada Department of Corrections stated that no corrections officers were harmed during the altercation. Prison conditions in Nevada have faced criticism, particularly concerning extreme temperatures and alleged inadequate living conditions, as evidenced by a hunger strike by incarcerated individuals at Ely State Prison in late 2022. Previous attempts to address deficiencies in prison policies following a state audit have not progressed to the state Legislature.