Day One of the Waco Siege

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1993:
At about 9:30 a.m. agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempt to execute arrest and search warrants against David KORESH and the Branch Davidian compound. Gunfire erupts. Four ATF agents are killed and 16 are wounded. An undetermined number of Davidians are killed and injured. Within a few hours, the FBI becomes the lead agency for resolving the standoff. Jeff JAMAR is named the on-site commander. By the afternoon, advance units of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) arrive, and telephone conversations are under way between KORESH, Steve SCHNEIDER, and Wayne MARTIN on one side and the ATF's Jim CAVANAUGH and Waco Police Lt. Larry LYNCH on the other. KORESH discloses that he has been wounded in the hip and left wrist. KORESH is allowed to broadcast his religious teachings on Dallas radio KRLD and does a CNN telephone interview. Michael SCHROEDER, a Branch Davidian, is killed while he tries to return to the main building. Texas Rangers begin an investigation but are barred by the FBI from continuing. At about 5:30 p.m., JAMAR arrives at Waco and chooses Byron SAGE of the FBI as chief negotiator. President CLINTON follows events closely throughout the day.[ Scruggs 1, 9, 21, 22, 24, 229, 236, 241]

(MYTH: The Branch Davidians were a weird, but peaceful sect of Christians, quietly praying inside their church one Sunday when they were set upon by an evil, gun-grabbing federal government that arrived, guns blazing, in helicopter gunships. Linda Thompson, a self-proclaimed “general of the militias,’ promoted this view in her videotape,‘Waco: The Big Lie.’)

[THE TRUTH: Oh, cry me a river. The Davidians lived in a 77-acre compound on the outskirts of Waco, Texas with ample water and food supplies, a watchtower, a dormitory and, according to Section 13 of the Scruggs Report, ‘305 firearms, and approximately 1.9 million rounds of "cooked off" or spent ammunition. Among the firearms found were at least 20 fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles; at least 12 fully automatic AR-15 assault rifles; at least two .50 caliber semi-automatic rifles; and anti-tank armor-piercing ammunition.’ (Yeah, that sounds like features all churches have.)

[ATF had been looking suspiciously at Vernon and his cult when a UPS worker had reported a package bursting open and being full of things like firearms, inert grenade hulls and black powder. ATF was wondering if Vernon had the proper licenses to do the work he was having done at ‘The Mag-Bag,’ his mail-order guns and ammo business. Also, refilling grenade casings is illegal as hell.

Before the Waco Whackos get all wound up. The ATF did NOT arrive in helicopter gunships with guns blazing. They arrived quietly in cattle trailers with an arrest warrant that charged Koresh with unlawful possession of a destructive device, in violation of 26 United States Code, section 5845(f). On Pages 133-134 of the Danforth Report, this particular claim was looked at by the Office of Special Counsel because the Goofy Bastards who believed Thompson’s videotape kept screaming for it. They stopped screaming once the Danforth report showed that none of the three Texas National Guard helicopters had shot at the compound. Not a single ONE.]

S. Olson