Young son held in killing of white supremacist

Riverside police say that an avowed white supremacist and onetime water district board candidate was shot to death in his home by his own young son.

Jeff Russell Hall, 32, was southwestern regional director of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group based in Detroit. Police were called to his home at 4:04 a.m. Sunday and found Hall badly injured and lying on a couch, Riverside Police Lt. Ed Blevins said.

Paramedics tried to revive Hall, but he died at the scene, Blevins said. After interviewing Hall’s wife and five children, police booked a minor son on a homicide charge, he said.

“We believe it was an intentional act,” Blevins said.

The boy, whose age was not given because he is a minor, was booked into Riverside County Juvenile Hall. Riverside County prosecutors are reviewing the case, Blevins said.

Hall’s other children were taken into protective custody, he said. A neighbor told the Press-Enterprise that all of the couple’s children are younger than 12.

Hall, a plumber, gained attention last year in his failed attempt to win a seat on the Western Municipal Water District in Riverside. His campaign was low-profile, but Hall was open about his white-supremacist beliefs when questioned.

“I want a white nation,” he told The Times last year. “I don’t hide what I am, and I don’t water that down.”

As regional director of the National Socialist Movement, Hall helped lead demonstrations in Riverside and Los Angeles, where supporters waved swastika flags, chanted “white power” and gave Nazi salutes.

Hall also helped organize militia-type watches along the California and Arizona borders, with volunteers in camouflage on the lookout for illegal border-crossers. On the National Socialist Movement website, group founder Jeff Schoep calls Hall a family man and a “dedicated American patriot.”

Blevins said a rifle and handgun were recovered from the home. It appears that Hall died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, but an autopsy is pending, Blevins said.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com