Mike Standeford stood outside his Bartlesville home on Monday morning, his driveway teaming with cars and people waiting with him, despite the cold temperatures making their breath visible.
He pointed to a large, black motorcycle.
“That was his bike.”
One week after the shooting death of his son, Austin “Buck” Standeford, 40, at biker-friendly bar The Kickstand Saloon, the father awaited the arrival of members of the Mongol Motorcycle Club, a community that embraced the family, both in life and in death.
“Everybody loved Buck. Everybody. He was always smiling, always helping people. Didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Everybody was really shocked this would happen to him. He’s just not that way,” Mike Standeford said. “He was a Mongol, he loved the Club. The Mongols are wonderful. They’re always there to support their own. They’ve been here supporting me.”
More: Bartlesville shooting suspect being held on $2 million bond
As a familiar, low rumbling sound approached, the road in front of the house was filled with a procession of hundreds of motorcycles, their riders donning leather vests bearing the same symbol, but different words.
Mongols MC of Oklahoma. Mongols MC of Shawnee. Of Texas. Of Virginia. It overwhelmed the grieving father.
“There they are. Those are the people he loved right there. Excuse me. Just seeing them coming in …” Mike Standeford said, taking a deep breath.
The local community of Mongols was rocked on Dec. 13 when, at 8:30 p.m., an altercation in The Kickstand Saloon led to the shooting of Austin Standeford and Van Parson — both affiliated with the club and employees of the bar.
Alleged shooter Gregory Rogers was arrested in Tulsa on Dec. 14, bearing a gunshot wound on his forearm and a bond already set at $2 million. In a Dec. 15 arraignment in Washington County District Court, Rogers…