In 1993, authorities raided a compound just outside Waco, Texas, after believing that its residents were in violation of federal firearms regulations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were hoping to catch the religious Branch Davidian sect, led by David Koresh, unaware, but the group members inside knew the ATF were on their way. Armed with rifles and grenades, the Branch Davidians believed that their leader was going to usher them through the impending apocalypse. The bloody siege resulted in the deaths of more than 80 Branch Davidians, including 28 children, and was the deadliest government-led assault on US soil since the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee.
The three-part docuseries Waco: American Apocalypse closely follows the 51-day standoff between the US government and the Branch Davidians at the Mount Carmel Center. It tells the stories of people involved on all sides of the siege and includes interviews with Branch Davidians, ATF agents who led the raid and FBI agents who conducted negotiations.
Read on for a full breakdown of the events that unfold in Waco: American Apocalypse.
Koresh seduced Branch Davidian leader Lois Roden, a woman in her 70s. When she died, Koresh took over the sect.
In 1992, the Australian news program A Current Affair aired a report about Koresh’s “revelation.” He believed he should take multiple wives, some as young as 11 years old, and began separating married couples within the organization. Women were prevented from sleeping with their husbands, and most couples agreed to the arrangement because “they believed that David Koresh was the key to their eternal salvation,” FBI assistant special agent Bob Ricks says in the docuseries.
The US government served a search warrant for machine guns against Koresh. Just before the raid at the Mount Carmel compound, a news cameraman looking for the compound inadvertently tipped off Branch Davidian member David Jones about the raid. An undercover agent with the ATF alerted the bureau that they’d lost the element of surprise and the Branch Davidians were ready for the attack. As ATF agents arrived, a firefight broke out between the two camps that lasted two hours. At the end of the first day, four ATF agents had died and 17 were wounded. Meanwhile, six Branch Davidians had died and many others, including Koresh, were wounded. The ATF negotiated a cease-fire so they could collect their downed companions. The FBI sent its Hostage Rescue Team to Waco and negotiations began so they could retrieve the children. That night, Koresh demanded that local media play a message and said he’d release two kids each time they aired it. Four children were released.
FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit chief Gary Noesner took over negotiations. The FBI Hostage Rescue Team moved armored vehicles to a nearby abandoned farmhouse to tighten the perimeter. Ten more children were released. On March 2, 20 people total had been released from the compound. Koresh said he’d surrender with everyone if he could broadcast an hour-long sermon on the Christian Broadcasting Network. But soon after Koresh’s message aired, he changed his mind about surrendering, saying God told him to wait.
Nine-year-old Heather Jones, whose father warned Koresh of the raid, was released from the compound. This brought the total number of people released to 21 children and two women. Jones was the last child to ever leave the compound.
FBI Hostage Rescue Team commander Dick Rogers called the negotiation room and said that the Branch Davidians were pointing a .50 caliber sniper rifle at their team. In the docuseries, Noesner says the negotiations team received a “frantic phone call” from Rogers who warned, “You tell them to get that out of the window and not aimed at us or we’re gonna take action.” Steve Schneider, a Branch Davidian and lieutenant to Koresh told negotiators there was no .50 caliber. “From that point on, we never knew where the .50 caliber was again. That was not good for us,” Hostage Rescue Team sniper Chris Whitcomb says in the docuseries. The breakdown in communication between negotiators and the Hostage Rescue Team “plagued this operation from start to finish,” says Dallas Morning News reporter Lee Hancock.
On the evening of March 7, Koresh said, “We are ready for war,” and the FBI responded the following morning by bringing in military Abrams tanks from Fort Hood. Meanwhile, negotiators tried out another strategy and sent video footage of released children to Branch Davidian parents who were still in the compound. “It made it much more difficult for me to do God’s will,” says Branch Davidian member Kathy Schroeder in the docuseries. Her son was in custody and supervision of the FBI.
FBI commanders temporarily cut off electricity within the compound without consulting the negotiations unit.
Criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin was contacted by Koresh’s mother. The FBI put DeGuerin in touch with Koresh. “If I could convince him that he had a chance of defeating the case, then he would come out, we’d go into court and we’d have a trial,” DeGuerin says in the series.
Janet Reno was sworn in as attorney general and briefed on the Waco situation by the FBI, according to PBS. Branch Davidian follower Kathy Schroeder left the compound to reunite with her son. She was then jailed. She also provided helpful intel to the FBI about conditions on the inside. As a result of Schroeder’s detention, trust between negotiators and Branch Davidian followers was further eroded.
The FBI Hostage Rescue Team crushed cars owned by Koresh and other Branch Davidians with armed vehicles. The FBI used loudspeakers to broadcast loud sounds and music to agitate people inside. Negotiators disagreed with the tactics. “The harder you push, the more likely it is to get resistance,” Noesner says in the docuseries. He left the mission four days later.
Criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin convinced the FBI to let him into the compound to speak with his client Koresh about ending the siege. DeGuerin told reporters he was “very hopeful” the siege would be over soon.
Timothy McVeigh, who would later become the Oklahoma City bomber, showed support for the Branch Davidians and sold anti-government bumper stickers on site. In the series, Dallas Morning News reporter Lee Hancock says the April 19, 1995 bombing was directly related to the Waco standoff, describing it as an act of “revenge.”
The FBI presented a plan to use tear gas to force Branch Davidians out of the compound to Attorney General Janet Reno. They presented the plan as “not as an all-out assault but as a tactic whereby gas will be inserted in stages, initially into only one small area of the compound.”
Koresh said he would leave the compound as soon as he finished writing his manuscript.
After approval from Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI began employing tear gas inside the compound and used armored vehicles to break into the building. They told Koresh’s lieutenant Steve Schneider that they were not entering the building. “This is not an assault,” they said, and asked Branch Davidians not to fire their weapons. The FBI soon noticed three separate fires, started simultaneously in different parts of the compound, that had rapidly spread. Recordings played back in the series showed the Branch Davidians discussing starting the fires, which survivor David Thibodeau denied. The FBI urged the Branch Davidians to exit the compound. Nine members survived. In total, four federal agents and 82 Branch Davidians, including 28 children, died in Waco.
