‘Person of interest’ detained in skinhead leader’s murder

CITRUS HEIGHTS – Sacramento sheriff’s investigators removed nearly a half-pound of methamphetamine from the home of the man questioned in connection with last week’s murder of a white supremacy leader.

Police take Charles Demar into custody at gunpoint at about 3:00 p.m. Wednesday - Photot Credit; CBS, KOVR-TV 13

Police detained “person of interest” Charles Demar, 36, at gunpoint for an unrelated narcotics charge Wednesday afternoon, several hours after American Front leader David Lynch was fatally shot in the head inside his Citrus Heights home.  Demar is being held on $1 million bail.

Lynch’s 33-year-old girlfriend was wounded in the leg during Wednesday’s shooting.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group watchdog, said Lynch began working as a skinhead organizer in the 1980s; the movement had recently become re-energized under his leadership. Law enforcement officers have known of Lynch for years and said his death will be a blow to many white supremacy groups.

The American Front, a white supremacist organization that got its start in San Francisco in 1987, termed Lynch’s death a “devastating loss” in a story comment submitted to CrimeVoice.com. “The American Front, as well as the entire White Racialist cause, has suffered a tremendous blow as we have lost one of our best,” the commenter wrote.

According to published reports, friends and families said the relationship between Demar and the 40-year-old Lynch had been deteriorating in recent weeks.

The Christian Science Monitor identified Demar, a tattoo artist, as “another longtime racist skinhead” and potential one-time friend of Lynch, who led the American Front since 2002.

Read more:

CBS, KOVR-TV 13, White supremacist David Lynch shot dead, Calif. police arrest “person of interest”
CBS, KOVR-TV 13, Friends Say Relationship Between Murdered Skinhead And ‘Person of Interest’ Had Been Deteriorating
ABC, KXTV-TV 10, Person of interest in skinhead murder has emotional moment in court