LARAMIE, Wyo., Oct. 13 -- Police say they were led to the two men charged with killing gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard while investigating another attack that took place on the same night. Two young Laramie men told police suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson approached them on a street last Tuesday, and that McKinney struck one of them in the head with the butt of a gun.
Nineteen-year-old Emiliano Morales says his 18-year-old buddy, Jeremy Herrera, whacked McKinney with a stick, enabling them to get away from their attackers. Morales required several stitches to close a gash in his head. Laramie detectives say they later found Shepard's credit card, a bloody pistol and other evidence in McKinney's truck linking him and Henderson to the beating that became a murder case when Shepard died early Monday. The two men face charges of first-degree murder in the attack and may face the death penalty if convicted. Their girlfriends, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price, are charged with accessory to murder. Police say McKinney and Henderson carried out the Shepard attack because he was gay. ---
Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
