All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S03E09_English

♪♪

They come in here with a gun,
and they start shooting at us.

What would you do?
Tell me.

Be realistic.
This is America.

This is not where a country
overthrows a bunch of people,

takes away their weapons

so that the people
cannot argue any issues.

We have freedom,
not freedom for religion,

not freedom for state,
but freedom for all.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"How it Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

Freedom of religion
and the right to bear arms,

two Constitutional guarantees
afforded to all Americans,

but in the early 1990s,

both were tested in a bizarre
and unimaginable standoff

that played out on televisions
around the world.

It began with the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

investigating
the Branch Davidians,

a religious sect
living near Waco, Texas.

The ATF received a tip that the
group and its spiritual leader,

David Koresh, were stockpiling
illegal weapons.

What followed was a series
of ill-fated decisions

that would lead to a violent
and disturbing conclusion.

This is how it really happened.

♪♪

Reavis: Mount Carmel was
a rambling wooden structure

and rudely constructed.

It was crude.

There was no air-conditioning,
which is important in Texas.

There was no heat, either.

Man:
This area is fairly remote.

You can see the headquarters
behind me.

We're about 10 miles
outside of Waco,

and that is part
of this 77-acre compound.

And what God says,
God is to bring to pass.

That's what prophecy is,
and when Christ brings his book,

that book contains what?

A revelation of who?

Jesus Christ.

Ronan: David Koresh was, by all
accounts, a biblical scholar,

a young man who could take
large parts of the Bible,

read them, have almost
a photographic memory

and recite
exactly what he had read,

and then carry on these five-
and six-hour discussions

about a particular
verse of the Bible.

People that follow David
Koresh are very loyal to him.

They believe him to be
the messiah,

the Latter-Day King
that will reign over the Earth.

They will do anything
that he says.

David Koresh's gift was
the ability

to really bring the Bible
to life for people.

Did death stop the truth?

Absolutely not.

Bunds: He could illustrate
things very clearly,

go into incredible detail,

link things together in ways
that I had never seen before.

Essentially,
what they believe was

that the apocalypse was eminent,

that the armies of Babylon
were coming soon,

and that they, the elect,

would have to fight
these armies of Babylon

in order to make the world right
for the second coming of Christ.

Ronan:
And they need to be weaponized

to be able
to fight off the forces

that they would have to fight
off in the Book of Revelations.

And so they bought guns because
they thought that some day

they were going to have to take
place in an end-times battle.

And you know what?
We're under fire.

Death, murder, killing,
that's religion.

So, increasingly they were
expecting some sort of assault.

Potok: They would buy weapons,
sell them at gun shows,

travel around the country.

A lot of people, in fact,
make their living that way.

Kendrick: The people that lived
out in Mount Carmel,

all they wanted to do
was lead their daily lives

and live happily,
raise their children

and be left alone,
so why were they targeted?

Potok: The way the whole
investigation starts is

in May of 1992,
a package falls out of the back

of a UPS truck
addressed to the Davidians.

It splits open, and what spills
out are empty grenade hulls,

the grenade
without the explosive.

The UPS driver was quite freaked
out by this,

went to the authorities,
local authorities,

who ultimately went to the ATF.

Once ATF opened an investigation
into the Branch Davidians

and their compound, they put
the compound under surveillance.

♪♪

There was a house
across the street,

and ATF rented the house

and put in some agents
to surveil the compound.

♪♪

These men are supposed
to be college students,

but the ATF for some reason

does a particularly lame job
of this undercover operation.

The men are all in their 30s,
and they're also driving,

you know, very nice cars
and trucks, right?

These are supposed to
be students,

so it didn't ultimately fool
too many people.

♪♪

Hustmyre: ATF decided to send
an undercover agent

into the compound
to try to find out

what was going on
inside the building,

you know,
what their intentions were,

where their weapons were.

Reavis: He called himself
Robert Gonzalez,

posed as a convert, came to
the services where Koresh spoke,

hung out there, and so on.

And he learned
what the agents suspected,

and that was that
the Branch Davidians

possessed a whole
slew of weapons.

Yeah, we've got -- we've got
a gun here and got a gun there.

A lot of people say,
"He's got guns.

That makes him bad.
That makes him a cult."

The gun issue
was grossly overblown.

I mean, yes, definitely,
we had firearms in there.

Woman: But why did he feel
he needed all those weapons?

Well, there's a couple reasons.
Number one, we went to gun shows

and made profits buying
and selling firearms legally.

It's not against the law to --

to buy anything that
they sell at a gun show.

Number two, there was
also the issue

of actually being able
to protect yourself

from what you call
the final days

according to the scripture.

♪♪

Wessinger:
ATF agents went to talk

with David Koresh's
licensed gun dealer,

and they were asking
questions about the weapons.

Reavis:
And the weapons dealer says,

"Well, why don't you
just go talk to him?"

And he picked up the phone
and called David,

and David says,
"Tell them to come on out,"

and the weapons dealer
handed the phone to the ATFers,

and they wouldn't touch it.

Hustmyre: Anybody with a huge
arsenal of weapons

has the potential, of course,
to be a threat.

There was talk, Koresh,
he was eventually going to go

into town with these weapons
and start shooting people,

committing some kind
of crazy terrorist act.

You know, I don't know
what he was going to do,

but it certainly
had the potential

to be extremely dangerous.

Reavis:
At that point, the ATF began

investigating
by electronic means.

They found that someone
there had ordered kits

to convert four AR-15s,
which were semiautomatic,

to M-16s,
which is the automatic version.

That's illegal
without a license,

and there were no license
applications to cover that.

So, that was the basis
for the ATF investigation,

that the Branch Davidians
were making illegal

fully automatic rifles
and machine guns.

Buford: Our goal at that time
was to arrest David Koresh

and also to seize
all of the illegal weapons

that were on the compound.

We first started planning
the middle of December of '92.

For almost 3 months, we were
developing different plans

in order to figure out
what is the best way

we could seize all the firearms
and arrest Koresh.

The agents considered
a number of arrest scenarios.

One of them was arrest
David Koresh

when he's away
from the compound.

I mean, I jogged every morning,
every day,

all the way down to the end
of this road and back.

I mean, I could have easily
been picked up any -- anytime.

They considered that option
and rejected it

because if they grabbed him
by himself,

that didn't necessarily mean
that the Branch Davidians

at the compound
were going to surrender,

and it wasn't just an arrest
warrant for David Koresh.

We have a search warrant
to execute,

so you have to search
the entire compound.

You still have to
force your way in there.

Seeing if we could get in fast
enough, secure the weapons,

keep the Davidians
from accessing the weapons,

then no one would get hurt.

Finally, the decision was made
to go ahead with a raid.

Rayburn: I don't know that
any of us grasped the magnitude

of how it changed
law enforcement

for the whole United States.

♪♪

Ballesteros: As part of the
special response team,

we were basically given
the order to prepare

for an operation,
and that's when I became

directly involved
with the investigation.

Hustmyre: ATF had both an
arrest warrant for David Koresh

and a search warrant
for the property,

two separate warrants
to execute.

Then you have to figure out
the best way

to get into the premises
to conduct the search.

There are a number of options.

You can conduct a dynamic entry,

which is
basically a forced entry.

You knock the door down,
or you use some ruse,

and you force your way
into the premises.

Buford: And make a controlled
rush into the building

to secure anyone on the inside,
especially anyone with --

with a weapon, or --

That was the basic plan --

move in really fast,
secure all the Branch Davidians,

make sure nobody had access
to the weapons,

and then we could call
in the evidence search teams.

Had the county sheriff,
who knew Koresh quite well,

come and knocked on the door
and said,

"David, we need to take
a look at your guns,"

I don't think there's
much question in a way.

David would have said,
"Come on in."

♪♪

Here I am at the front door
totally unarmed,

and the exact words that
I hollered out were, "Get back!

There's women and children here.
Let's talk about this."

That's what I do.
I learn about people.

I learn about myself.

What about these people here?
What do they think of you?

Well, you know
what they think of me?

They think
I'm the son of God.

Do they?
Yeah.

Doyle: Branch Davidians believe
the Bible is the word of God,

and it's also written in code
so that nobody can understand it

unless God shows it to them.

Wessinger: So, someone who seems
to be particularly skilled

in interpreting the Bible,

they regarded those
individuals as prophets,

as being divinely inspired
to interpret the Bible

and specifically its prophecies
about the end-time.

Doyle: Branch Davidians believe
in prophets in this day and age

just as much as the people

in the Old Testament
believed in prophets.

And, of course, they regard
David Koresh as a prophet.

But David Koresh
wasn't a prophet.

He was born in Houston.

His name was Vernon Howell.

Vernon Howell did not have
an easy start in life.

His mother was a 15-year-old
unmarried teenage girl.

He never knew his father.

He was a very troubled kid.

He was bullied.
He was harassed.

He was given, you know,
a real hard time growing up.

Haldeman: As a little boy,
he loved going to church

and Sabbath school
and took an interest in it,

and, so, I was not surprised,
you know,

as he got older, to take
an interest the way he did.

He dropped out of high school
in the 10th grade.

He had a learning disability.

Writing was very hard for him,

but he was very smart,
very verbal.

It certainly expressed itself.

Whatever his learning
disability was,

it didn't prevent him
from studying the Bible

and memorizing portions
of the Bible.

Ronan: Vernon Howell, this young
man, was almost like a savant

when it came to his knowledge
of the Bible.

He could read it
and understand it

and regurgitate large quantities
of the Bible almost at will.

So, Tobias says,
"He will not do inequity.

He will bring forth his judgment
to light every morning.

But the unjust know" --

All: No shame.

♪♪

First time Vernon Howell,
who later became David Koresh,

showed up at Mount Carmel,
it was 1981.

When I first met Vernon Howell,

Lois Roden
was the minister at that time.

Wessinger: He started studying
what Lois Roden was teaching

in terms
of her interpretations,

and she found him to be
a very talented interpreter

of the Bible's prophecies.

And she becomes impressed
with his ability to preach

and his ability to tell people
his interpretation of the Bible.

The just Lord is in the what?
All: Minister.

He will not do?

But he brings forth
his judgment to light.

All: Every morning.
Every morning.

Wessinger: And the core group
of Branch Davidians

began to look more to
Vernon Howell as their prophet.

Ronan: For the first time
in his troubled life,

Vernon Howell found his niche,
a place in the world

where he really believed
that he fit in.

Vernon Howell legally
changed his name

to David Koresh in 1990.

David for the Davidians,
of course, and, you know,

this was a biblically
significant name to the group.

Now Vernon Howell has got
what he always wanted,

and that is the chance
to be the leader

of this religious community,
to preach, to sing,

and to try and convince people
that we are in the end of times.

The basic theology
of the Waco Davidians

was Christianity splinter group
from the Seventh-Day Adventists.

I'd say over 99%
of the members of the --

of the group are -- are former
Seventh-Day Adventist members.

Others were people
that David met in bars.

He would talk to anyone
who would listen.

Reavis: Since its founding
in 1934,

the Davidians had said
they were open

to the people of all nations,
and at Mount Carmel,

you had every race
on the Earth living there.

From the U.K., from Israel,
from Australia, from Hawaii.

There were Hispanic people,
Native Americans.

It was a very diverse group.

King:
How long was your daughter
a member of that movement, Ruth?

About four to five years.

Do you know
why she joined?

Yes, there were two people
that she met in Hawaii,

and they said, "You've got to
listen to this man.

He is terrific.
He knows his Bible.

He is
a wonderful teacher.

Martin: When I first spoke
to David Koresh,

I didn't know who he was,

and once we got to Texas
in May 1985,

we realized that this
is what we wanted.

This is the situation
that we had read about.

My husband gave up his job,

and people wondered
what we were doing.

Why were we doing all this?

And they were very,
very surprised

that a Harvard Law School
graduate would be involved,

but Wayne wanted very much,

once he learned
how beautiful the message was,

he wanted to be a part of it.

So, the attraction is for people

who can't understand The Bible
on their own,

they will go to David Koresh,

and through
his teachings and studies,

which could go on
for hours and hours,

they will eventually be sucked
into his group

because they'll be impressed

with what he teaches
from The Bible.

He'd say,
"What do you people want?"

And we'd say we want to study,

and then he'd sit down, and we'd
have a night-long Bible study.

And those works testify,
point blank,

that they knew nothing of God,
and he did.

I wanted to remember as many
things as possible,

the people, the things we did.

I was able to put some
of these things on paper.

It just was a --
a regular home for us.

We had seven children.

They had friends and played
and had fun with each other

with the new people
that were coming all the time.

And we had our own dairy.
We grew our own vegetables.

We just had
a very pleasant life.

The main things was we all felt
like a big family.

And we were happy
we were there.

Everyone was happy.

You might get the idea that it
was a bunch of crazy people.

They weren't really.

I mean, they're just average,
ordinary people.

We had unusual beliefs.

It was not a matter
of David Koresh

exercising some kind of
mind control over the people.

2,000 years,
men have suffered and died,

taught theories.

Wessinger: He was presenting
an interpretation

of The Bible's
end-time prophecies

in a way that the Branch
Davidians found plausible,

and they committed
their lives to him.

There's a revelation of Jesus
Christ to be dealt with here.

♪♪

Ross: David Koresh would have
what he called spiritual wives.

This would be any woman
that he chose or a child.

You know, it's a fact that
David Koresh was sleeping with

12- and 13-year-old girls.

Doyle:
We believe that David was doing

what God instructed him to do,
no matter how weird.

Martin: If David had asked me
or my daughters

to become one of his wives,
I would say yes.

♪♪

Ronan: While the ATF's mission
was to seize illegal weapons,

there were all kind of rumors
that many illegal activities

were taking place
at the compound.

We were also briefed on a lot
of other stuff

that Koresh was involved in.

In the course of
the investigation,

they did learn that children
were being abused,

women were being abused.

Ronan: David Koresh believed
in polygamy,

and he believed that
since he was the anointed one,

he was entitled
to have relations

with as many women
as he wanted to.

Bunds:
The marriages were dissolved.

The men in the group
were to be celibate,

and all the women
would belong to him.

Ross: David Koresh would have
what he called spiritual wives.

This would be any women
that he chose or a child.

He began, you know, taking
young women as his wives.

You know, it's a fact that David
Koresh was sleeping

with 12- and 13-year-old girls.

Doyle:
We believe that David was doing
what God instructed him to do,

no matter how weird or how
unacceptable in public opinion

it was or whatever,
and he kept telling us,

"It's all for judgment."

And he told us the story
about how God told him to do it

and how it was in The Bible
and described

all the theological
arrangements to justify this.

I never thought
I would believe in polygamy,

but for a period of time
in the cult,

you know,
you have to accept polygamy

because that's what
David Koresh is teaching.

Kendrick: My youngest daughter
was one of David's first wives.

I was thrilled because I thought
that was an honor.

If David had asked me
if my daughters --

To be a part of his life
and to become one of his wives,

I would say yes
because of how he showed us

what type of person he is.

Hustmyre:
So, there was a whole dynamic
to the Branch Davidian cult

that we were briefed on,
but it didn't directly apply

to federal firearms
and explosives laws.

Ballesteros: ATF has no
jurisdiction over state matters

of child abuse,
sexual harassment.

Our mission in investigating
the Branch Davidians

was solely the fact
that these people were involved

in manufacturing
illegal weapons.

♪♪

Hustmyre: This is
a very isolated structure.

There's no way
to sneak up on it.

You have hundreds of yards
of open ground to cover,

and you have to go down
a gravel driveway to get to it.

Man: There is a guard tower
with windows on all four sides.

There is one road that really
goes up to the -- the compound,

and so they are able to see
pretty much anything

that develops around them.

We referred to the raid itself
as Trojan Horse

because of the fact
that we were going in

in these covered
cattle trailers.

And the plan was cattle trailers

are so ubiquitous around
Western Texas and central Texas

that the Branch Davidians
would maybe not realize

that we were government agents
inside the cattle trailers,

that maybe we were just
a couple of lost ranchers

pulling,
you know, herds of cattle.

Rayburn:
Typically at that time of day,
the Branch Davidians were out.

They had an exercise area.
They had chores to do.

They had things that they were
working on,

and they would be out there
at that time.

The helicopters would come in,

and they would all look up,
and as that's happening,

the cattle trailers
would pull in,

and it would give us that moment
to get out of the trailers

and be able to contain those
people before we went inside.

Ballesteros: We were hoping, of
course, to conduct an operation

where we don't
have to use force,

just secure everybody,

put people on the ground,
handcuff them

and then move on
to conduct searches.

Although, now looking back on
that with 25 years of hindsight,

that plan itself
seems pretty stupid.

Potok: In a way,
the most remarkable thing

about this whole story
is the fact that the raid

was compromised
before it happened.

Several news reporters
got tips this raid was coming.

Get that camera
out of here.

The element of surprise was lost
when a local news crew

was looking for the compound.

Okay, the compound's out
in the middle of nowhere.

It's not that easy to find.

He saw a postman passing by
and stopped him

and asked for directions
to the compound.

"Hey, we heard there was gonna
be some kind of police action

going on,
and we were here to film it."

But unknown to the television
reporter, the postal worker was,

in fact, David Koresh's
brother-in-law.

The whole thing is blown.

Man: That conversation may have
tipped David Koresh.

And the undercover ATF agent
actually hears

this conversation.

He makes an excuse and gets out
of there fast and hightails

it to where the ATF people
are gathering

for the raid to let the leaders
of the raid know,

it's been completely
compromised.

"They know you're coming."

David Koresh
and the Branch Davidian men

had half an hour to prepare.

Doyle: Morning of the raid,
I wandered into the cafeteria,

and it's maybe a dozen
or so people in there or so,

but we just heard
the news somebody's coming.

You know, it sounded ominous.

Potok: Koresh called
the Davidians together,

and he had the men
don these black suits

that the women had sewn
over the months

before which were
fighting outfits.

They had, you know,
pockets for ammunition clips.

He had the men go upstairs to
the large second-story barracks,

and they sat them one
in front of each window.

♪♪

Hustmyre: Once we lost
the element of surprise,

the big mistake ATF made,
the huge mistake,

was to move forward
with the raid anyway.

And at that point, myself and
the other team leaders, we said,

"Look, what do you mean
they know we're coming?

We can't go if they know
we're coming."

I didn't have the authority
at that time

to call off the raid,

so we went ahead and loaded up
and went out to the compound.

Hustmyre: It's never a good sign
when, you know, the --

the leadership
comes to you and says,

"Okay, we think
we're compromised.

We need to go now."

You know, instead of stopping
and sort of reassessing,

they just push, push, push.

Ballesteros: The case agent
caught me as I was getting ready

to load the cattle trailer,
and he said,

"Roland, these guys
are going to -- be careful.

These guys are going
to shoot at you."

You know, I thought, "Well,

I don't know how we're going
to get out of this."

There was no plan whatsoever
to extract us

if we got pinned
down by gunfire.

♪♪

Gunfire was just pouring
into the building.

Man:
Help! I'm under fire!

I tell them, "there are children
and women in here,"

and to call it off!

The first thing that
I thought was,

you know, I had
a 2-year-old son at home,

and I didn't
get to say goodbye.

Welcome back.

ATF agents decide to go ahead
with the raid

of the Branch Davidian compound

knowing full well they'd lost
the key element of surprise.

The consequences of their
decision have been debated

and analyzed ever since.

Could they have arrested
David Koresh in town?

Should they have tried
to negotiate?

Instead, they never strayed far
from the option they chose,

to go in any way,
locked and loaded.

♪♪

Usually, when
you're going out on a raid,

everybody's pumped up.

In this case,
as we drove out there,

everybody was very quiet
and solemn.

Hustmyre: You're driving
towards this great unknown.

You just don't know
what's going to happen.

It could go really simply,
or it could be a disaster.

It just looked so quiet,
and it was so eerie.

The men aren't working.
There's no activity.

I thought, "Oh, no. They're
all inside waiting for us."

Rayburn: I actually looked
at one of the other agents

that was standing next to me,
and I'm like,

"That's not good,"
and they're like, "No.

They should be outside."

Hustmyre: The big problem was,
of course,

that once you've lost
the element of surprise,

these dynamic entry raids
don't work so well.

The second we got out
of the cattle trailers,

they were already positioned
in all of the windows with guns.

And I saw a man jump out
with an Army uniform on,

and he had a gun in his hand,
and he says something like,

"Okay, let's go."

My first thought was,

"Oh, there's going to be
a bloodbath."

I opened the front door.

They've got their guns
aimed and everything.

They started hollering,
you know, all of them hollered.

I didn't know what
they were saying.

I could hear him screaming.

I was already hollering,
"Go away.

There's women and children here.
Let's talk."

Ballesteros: And he's asking me,
"What's going on?"

I'm yelling at him that,
"This is a search warrant.

Lay down."

He looks at me, and he smiles
at me, and he backs up,

and he shuts the door.

Gave me a chill.

There's a short exchange,
and someone shoots a gun.

[ Gunshot ]

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

I fell back in the door,

and the bullets started
coming through the door.

Doyle: Gunfire was just pouring
into the building.

People down the other end
of the hall were yelling at me,

"Get down!
They're shooting!"

I can see bullets
coming through the walls.

We're being fired upon.

The bullets are hitting around
on the ground.

Hustmyre: I mean, it was like
a day at the firing range.

There were, you know,
shots going off all around me.

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

Buford: We just went around
to the side of the building,

put our ladders up,
and went up onto the roof

and started trying to make entry
into the windows on the roof.

And as soon as they got up
on the roof,

the automatic weapons
just started opening up.

The rounds started coming
through the walls in the room

and also up through the floor.

It wasn't just a second,
and I was shot in the butt.

He went down.
It looked like a bullet

came through the roof
from the inside,

and he slid down his ladder
and was carried off.

Hustmyer: And of course,
then they realized,

well, they have to
get off the roof.

I mean, it's a death trap.

That's where my partner
was killed was up on the roof.

He was a good friend of mine.

♪♪

The Davidians themselves
called 911 on us.

Martin:
My husband, Wayne Martin,

was downstairs
yelling into the phone.

There was a frantic voice
on the other end of it.

I was laying next to my
6-year-old and 4-year-old.

My son said, "Why are
the bad people here?"

He knew something
was very wrong,

and we just stayed down
as low as we could.

At some point,
I knocked on the wall

and I said,
"What are we going to do?

What are we supposed to do?"

The person on the other side
said, "Just stay there.

Just don't move."

There was gunfire
in the background.

There were people hollering
in the background.

Martin:
We were sitting there thinking

this is what David talked about,

what we read about,
what we studied about.

Potok: In many ways, this plays,
obviously, right into

what David Koresh
has been telling

his followers all along, right?

At any moment,
the armies of Babylon

are going to come
and try and murder us,

and we have got to fight them
and win, right,

in order to make possible
the second coming of Christ.

No one's going to hurt me
or my family.

Hustmyre:
It was like a movie.

I mean, it seemed unreal to me.

I had no idea where the rest
of my family was.

Koresh:
No one's going to expect me,

when they come busting in
on my door with guns drawn

and pointed in the air
and someone fire at me,

that I'm going to lay down
and die for anybody.

And I'm sorry
some of your guys got shot,

but, hey, God will have
to sort that out, won't he?

♪♪

The fire fight itself went on
for about 2 1/2 hours

with rounds being fired
almost constantly.

Ballesteros: Finally,
they negotiated a cease-fire,

and it was at that point in time
that I think everybody's nerves

on the inside kind of
calmed down a little bit

knowing that we weren't going
to shoot at them.

They could stop shooting at us.

Martin: And I kept hearing,
"Cease fire! Cease fire!"

all over the building.

I just was so happy.

I was just saying
that this is over.

You know, no one's
going to shoot anymore.

I began to realize afterwards

that people were in other rooms,
had been shot.

We were getting bits and pieces
from people

from different areas
of the building.

Somebody came and says,
"Winston's dead."

I went up the hall,
and I could hear water running,

and when I turned into his room,
Winston was laying on the floor

in a big pool
of water and blood.

Martin: When I picked up my son
and looked at him,

I was wiping blood off of him.

The glass was coming down
and hitting him on the face.

I thought at first
he had been shot,

but it was just
the glass fragments.

I had no idea where the rest
of my family was.

♪♪

It was like a movie.

I mean, it seemed unreal to me.

We had wounded
all over the place.

We got one more --
one more.

We could see, on either side
of us, officers down.

We could see that --
tell that one of them was dead,

one of them was being performed
CPR, and other injuries.

Hustmyer: Me and another agent,
we picked up a dead agent,

and we were bringing him
to an ambulance,

and the back of the ambulance

was packed with wounded agents.
There was no room.

Buford:
I had been shot four times.

I had been wrapped up
in a sleeping bag

because I was going into shock
and very cold,

so they lifted me up
and put me on the hood

of a television crew's Bronco,

I believe it was,
and I rode out down

to where the other ambulances
were on the hood of a truck.

Eventually, word just kind
of circulated

that four agents
had been killed.

Four agents of the Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms Agency

were killed.

Just a feeling of total shock.

Buford:
Rob Williams, one of the agents,

he was more like a son
to me than an agent.

He was just the kind of kid
that couldn't get enough of it.

I'll never forget watching him
when he was shot,

because I knew immediately
when he was hit that he was --

he was dead,
and it just broke my heart.

It was the day
before his 26th birthday.

This has been the largest loss
we have sustained

in one operation.

Ronan: The CNN newsroom
at that time was bedlam.

We were just starting to get
pictures of what was coming in.

We were just starting to get
a sense of the size of the raid.

Four agents were killed
and more than a dozen wounded

in a blistering shootout when
agents arrived at the compound

this morning to arrest
the cult's leader.

All of a sudden, you start
getting phone calls on the air

from people who live,

you know, within
a couple miles of the compound.

One of the assignment editors
answered the phone and said,

"There's this guy
calling from Texas,

and something strange
is going on."

We have with us on the live line

the leader of
the Davidian branch.

Mr. Koresh, how are you doing?

I understand
you've been wounded.

Would you describe
your condition?

Koresh: Weakening.

Are you shot, sir?

Yes, I am.

Where, sir?

Several places, to the guts,
side, arms.

Mr. Koresh,
from your point of view,

because we don't have it,

can you describe how whatever
happened this morning --

They all came
locked and cocked.

Somehow,
the shooting started.

They started firing at me,
and, so, what happened was is

that some of
the young men and stuff

started firing
on them.

It became a huge question,
of course -- Who fired first.

The ATF says
they might have fired

at one of the dogs
they thought was aggressive,

but they say they didn't fire
into the compound first.

The first gunshot
could have been an agent

firing at one of the dogs

because we did have dogs
that kind of came after us,

but we certainly didn't
open fire on the compound.

I can tell you
that they were shooting at us

before we got fully unloaded
from the cattle trailers.

Before my feet hit the ground,
there were gunshots everywhere.

We were ambushed. That's
what it was. We were ambushed.

I think it's false,
any idea that we ambushed them

or were waiting for them.

The Davidians, of course,

allege that the ATF
just started shooting.

French:
It is your contention

that the approaching officers
fired first.

They fired on us first,
and you can't blame these men,

and I don't judge them
for doing their job.

And to this date, no one knows
who fired the first shot.

Mr. Koresh, what will it take
to bring it

to a peaceful conclusion,
if it can be brought to one?

Checking now our top stories
on "Prime News."

In Waco, Texas,
at least four federal agents

are dead and 14
are injured in a shoot-out

with members
of a religious cult.

Man: Inside the armed fortress,
more than 100 men,

women, and children remain holed
up apparently with enough food,

water, and ammunition
to keep going for a long time.

And there's still no sign

that there's going to be
a surrender anytime soon.

This is ain't America anymore
when the ATF

has that kind of power
to come into anybody's home

and kick doors down
and things like that,

and I did not appreciate it,

and never will I ever appreciate
somebody coming here

with helicopters
and cattle trailers

and all that and pushing
people around with guns.

So, after this long gun battle,

David Koresh is
inside the compound.

He's badly wounded.

There's one of them.

But he's not coming out,
so the FBI takes over.

When a federal agent is killed,

it's a crime
that is investigated by the FBI

regardless of the federal agency
for whom the death occurred,

so that was the rationale

upon which the FBI was
deployed to Waco.

[ Telephone rings ]

Sage: The phone rang
just as I was getting ready

to jump in the shower.

I picked it up,
and it was my boss,

who was the agent in charge
of the entire division,

and he just said,
"Byron, there's been a raid

that's gone horribly wrong
near Waco.

Get to Waco as soon as you can."

The FBI was to assume
overall command and control

of attempting
to resolve this situation.

Man: Some 200 federal, state,
and local lawmen

have surrounded
the 77-acre compound

as the standoff continues.

Noesner: When I arrived
at the command post,

it was filled with a dozen

or so ATF agents
who still had their --

Their tactical gear on,
and I'll --

I'll never forget
the looks on their faces.

They had been through
a traumatic experience.

They looked shell-shocked.

I was lucky to be alive.

I was very lucky.
I was very lucky.

It could have been
a lot worse for me.

Buford:
I wish now that I had just said,

"Hell, no. We won't go,"
and told my guys to stand down,

even if it cost me my job.

Ronan: Once journalists,
CNN and others,

learned about what was going on,
everybody,

it was all hands on deck
to get down to Waco

as fast as you could.

This small little speck
of a town in central Texas

is now the focal point
of the world.

Man: Hundreds of journalists
from the U.S.

and dozens from overseas
rush to Waco, Texas.

Satellite technology
beamed the story worldwide.

Photographers actually
built a stand

so that they could get a better
look at the compound,

and you had cameras lined up
from one end to the other

with long telephoto lenses
to try and follow the action,

whatever was going on
at the compound.

Woman: Possibly 40 are wounded
including Koresh himself,

the self-proclaimed messiah.

Potok: The whole world was
kind of riveted

by what was happening in Waco.

It was an amazing story,

and it was kind of
a television story.

French: Mr. Koresh, could I ask
you how you integrate

what's been happening to you
today with your core beliefs?

Koresh: It is written.
It is written.

That's why I've brought
to this world

the knowledge
of the seven seals.

I had just heard
on CNN this conversation

with David Koresh
about the seven seals.

This got my attention
because the seven seals

are in the Book of Revelation,

and I had just finished
my PhD dissertation

on apocalyptic groups
and what they believe.

God really did
write the Bible,

but unless we know the testimony
of all the prophets

in the light
of God's own word,

the seven seals,
we really cannot confirm

that the scriptures are inspired
of God. They shot me.

French: Mr. Koresh, we were
happy to let you go on

and explain your beliefs
because I --

I can tell
it's important to you.

I realized this is not going to
make sense to most people,

particularly the FBI,
but I understood it.

I understood that David Koresh
had a message that was coherent

and was following
certain basic interpretations

of the Book of Revelation.

I realized that
if he were not understood,

this could end in tragedy.

Man:
Agents stay on high alert here

trying to figure out
what to do next.

No one knows exactly
what they should do

or how this will end.

What will it take to bring it
to a peaceful conclusion,

if it can be
brought to one.

Arnold:
I realized I was the scholar

that David Koresh
wanted to talk to,

and I realized that
I could take him on,

and I could debate
the seven seals with him

or show him another way
of understanding them,

so I packed the bags,

I threw them in the car,
I drove to Waco.

Woman: At least on the outside,
tensions remain high,

and nerves are frayed
as the 400 or so federal, state,

and local officials
play a waiting game

with the estimated 75 members
of the Branch Davidians

still believed to be
inside the compound.

Noesner:
I've studied hostage situations,
not only in the United States

but around the world
for well over 35 years,

and I've never seen
anything that approaches

the complexity and difficulty
that we faced at Waco.

See, I'll meet you
at the doorstep any day,

you know,
and somebody will get hurt.

I would submit to you there
wasn't an agency in the land

that was prepared for what we
were fixing to go up against.

You want to keep playing
that game?

I'm talking to you.

Somebody's going to get hurt.

♪♪

♪♪

Many lessons were learned
from the ATF raid,

including the most
important one.

It never should have happened

once they lost
the key element of surprise.

Four ATF agents and six
civilians were now dead,

and now the pressure
was on the FBI

to figure out how to talk
David Koresh

and his followers
into surrendering.

What followed would become
one of the most controversial

uses of force against
U.S. civilians in history

and a textbook case
on whatnot

when dealing with
armed extremists.

That's later in part two of
"How it Really Happened: Waco."

I'm Hill Harper.

Thanks for watching.