Website that sells violent video has link to 311 Boyz

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Police are interested in a website that could be linked to the 311 Boyz and features an advertisement for a company that sells videos of people engaged in fistfights around the Las Vegas Valley.

A website called 311Boyz.com links to a site that sells DVDs of people fighting, primarily in Las Vegas.

A producer for the company that is advertised on the site, FUTV Productions of Las Vegas, said he didn't know about the link.

"I'm not going to comment on the 311 Boyz," said a man who called himself John Trouble, a producer for FUTV.

Capt. Dan Barry of Metro's gang unit said Thursday that he had no knowledge of a 311 Boyz website or FUTV. He said officers would begin investigating the gang's possible connection and any evidence that the site could provide immediately.

Police say the 311 Boyz is a gang of mostly teenagers who live in the area around Centennial High School. Several teens have been charged with an attack on two other teens. Police are investigating other incidents in northwest Las Vegas that may be connected to the group.

Videotapes released this week show alleged members of the 311 Boyz engaged in violent fistfights similar to the ones said to be depicted on the FUTV videos.

Police had said that the teens planned to sell the tapes for money. Barry said it was too soon to confirm or deny that allegation.

"It's hard to say," he said. "It definitely seems like they're glamorizing this behavior and trying to make it seem more spectacular than it is."

Robby Thompson, an employee at Odyssey Records, a retailer at 1600 Las Vegas Blvd. South, which sells the DVD, said the FUTV videos depict people engaging in fistfights and other "humorous" behavior around the Las Vegas Valley.

He said the 311 Boyz are not featured on the DVD, but could be featured on a sequel to the tape, which is due to come out in the coming months.

Trouble declined to comment on whether the 311 Boyz had approached the company about selling any video footage or whether the teens would be featured in upcoming videos.

According to the site, FUTV encourages amateur filmmakers to send footage of people fighting or engaged in other "malicious" behavior.

The company promises to pay $500 if the footage is used in the videos sold.

"Send us a tape of your stupid and malicious best," the site says. "FUTV is looking for just about anything you can, or can't think of."

Police say the 311 Boyz is a violent gang of teens from middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods in northwest Las Vegas.

Barry said police are still trying to identify the dozens of teens depicted on the tapes, and are investigating several other allegations of violence involving the gang that have surfaced in recent weeks.

He declined to comment on the specifics of those allegations, saying he didn't want to interfere with the investigation.

"There are several other allegations we're investigating," he said. "When we get enough evidence on those we'll submit them to the district attorney's office."

Nine teens already face criminal charges in an attack on 17-year-old Stephen Tanner Hansen. Hansen suffered severe facial injuries when a rock was thrown through the window of a vehicle in which he was riding.

Those teens are Jeff Hart, 17, Ernest Bradley Aguilar, 17, Steven Gazlay, 18, twins Anthony and Brandon Gallion, 16, Mathew Costello, 17, Christopher Farley, 18, Dominic Harriman, 19, and Scott Morse, 18.

The teens are due in court Tuesday to be arraigned on 13 felony counts, including attempted murder, battery and coercion.

A videotape released Thursday shows a group of about 15 alleged 311 Boyz surrounding a truck full of teenagers after a fight between two teens.

Police say the attack on Hansen happened in a similar manner, with 40 to 80 teens surrounding the vehicle he was in before pummeling it with rocks and beer bottles.

Barry said the "mob-type" behavior shown on the tape is indicative of how large groups of 311 Boyz often surround and then attack their victims.

"In all the cases, it seems like a pit bull mentality or mob mentality," he said. "They surround their victims."

Thompson, the Odyssey Records employee, said the FUTV videos also depict fistfights in areas around Las Vegas. He said he oversees the business contract between the music store and the producers of FUTV.

Thompson said the tapes were similar to "Bumfights," in which amateur filmmakers paid homeless people to fight and show various other confrontations.

About four producers stage or instigate the situations in the FUTV videos, he said. The company has a copyright and a trademark on the video, he said.

"It's just people fighting," he said. "There are drunk people, strippers, people acting stupid ... It's just like a home video."