A white supremacist who ran for a Riverside water board last year was shot to death inside his home early Sunday, and his young son is suspected of the killing, police said.
Officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 5400 block of Lauder Court at 4:04 a.m., a Riverside police news release stated. They found Jeff Hall, 32, inside the home with a single gunshot wound. Police did not say where the bullet struck him.
Riverside firefighters later pronounced him dead.
Police were investigating whether the shooting was intentional or accidental, said Lt. Ed Blevins, manager of the Investigations Bureau. He said two handguns were recovered from the home.
Hall had been identified as the regional director for the National Socialist Movement, which promotes white separatism on its website.
Hall's wife and five children were in the home at the time of the shooting, Blevins said by phone Sunday evening. He did not release any information about the child suspected in the shooting. Child Protective Services were called, he said, but he wasn't sure if they had taken the other young children.
Police said they were not looking for additional suspects.
On Sunday afternoon, no one answered the door at the beige stucco, two-story home where Hall and his family lived.
A wreath with a blue cartoonish rabbit and Easter eggs with the words "Bunny Crossing" hung on the door, and Easter egg appliqués were stuck to a front window. A surveillance camera protruded from a corner of the roof, commanding the front of the house.
Charles Wilson , head of public relations for the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement, confirmed that Hall had been killed, but said by phone Sunday afternoon from his home in Oklahoma that the organization had no immediate comment.
An Arizona publication, Phoenix New Times, reported last year that Hall had led several armed white supremacists into the desert near the Mexican border to patrol for illegal immigrants.
The National Socialist Movement website shows photos of its members from Southern California near the state's border with Mexico, as well as pictures from an anti-illegal immigration rally in Riverside two years ago that turned violent when scores of counter-protesters marched against the neo-Nazi group.
Several residents in the neighborhood overlooking UC Riverside said they were still shaken from the early-morning shooting. Some refused to talk about it, while others weren't sure how to react after months of what they described as intimidation by Hall and other National Socialist Movement members who often visited.
"Honestly, I feel like it's over," said Juan Trejo, who lives across the street from Hall's home. "It was scary here. Hopefully we'll never see any of them again."
Trejo described a Halloween party at the home last year, when Hall flew a swastika flag from the home and guests wore KKK hoods. Trejo said Hall lived there with his wife and several children, one of whom called his son a "beaner" when the boy skateboarded near the Hall home.
Trejo said in the two years they lived there, he had never spoken to Hall, his wife, or several children, whom he described as all younger than about 12.
"I never tried to even say hello because they are racist," he said.
Hall ran against incumbent Tom Evans for Division 2 of the Western Riverside Municipal Water District board in November. Division 2 covers March Air Reserve Base and eastern Riverside.
Hall said at the time that regardless of his National Socialist goals, he would serve the entire community equally if elected.
Hall lost to Evans, but still received more than 25 percent of the vote.
