- Title: Trump heads to Waco some 30 years after deadly siege
- Date: 24th March 2023
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - AUGUST 1, 1995) (Reuters - Broadcasters: None Digital: None) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF THEN-U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO BEING SWORN IN
- Embargoed: 7th April 2023 14:07
- Keywords: Branch Davidian Trump Waco siege
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA006910621032023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Former U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Waco, Texas on Saturday (March 25) as the United States nears the 30th anniversary of a deadly siege.
According to local media, Trump has not explained why he chose Waco as the site of his rally. The Waco Tribune-Herald reported that Trump is expected to limit his appearance at the airport.
On April 19, 1993, a 51-day siege in Waco ended in fire and bloodshed between a cult-like group called the Branch Davidians and U.S. and Texas law enforcement agents.
Dozens were killed that day, including several children along with Branch Davidian leader David Koresh.
The siege on the ranch known as "Mount Carmel Center" started with a failed attempt to execute a search warrant for illegal firearms on February 28, 1993, by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which enforces U.S. gun laws.
The federal government agency attempted to serve the warrant on the group of followers of Koresh estimated to number more than 100. Known as Vernon Howell before he took the name David Koresh, he went to the prairie in central Texas in the early 1980s along with the breakaway Seventh Day Adventist sect established in the 1950s.
Koresh, a self-styled modern prophet, spoke about the second coming of Jesus Christ, a cornerstone of Adventist beliefs.
The sect resisted the government warrant, and the gun battle that followed killed four federal agents and six members of the church.
For the next 51 days, a dramatic standoff played out on television and in news headlines across the world. Audiences watched live as sect followers unfurled sheets scrawled with defiant messages and federal agents held news conferences condemning them.
On April 19, 1993, federal agents raided the chapel, using tanks and teargas. The sect's followers fought back and a huge blaze erupted, destroying the building.
At the end of the siege, investigators reported 76 sect members dead - 18 of whom were later determined to have been killed by gunshots. Koresh, 33 at the time, was found with a gunshot to his forehead.
In all, 82 sect members, including 23 children, and four federal agents, died at Waco.
Controversy erupted over the government's role in the tragedy following the incident.
The official stand of the U.S. government remains that Koresh was a danger and needed to be taken down. Both then-President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Janet Reno found themselves defending their decisions.
"Responsibility for the tragedy at Waco rests with certain of the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, who shot and killed four (federal) agents, wounded 20 others, shot at FBI agents trying to insert tear gas into the complex, burned down the complex and shot at least 20 of their own people, including five children," said the final report of a special counsel investigating the tragedy.
In 2000, the Department of Justice released a report headed by former Missouri Sen. John Danforth that cleared the government of wrongdoing.
However, critics dismissed the report as essentially a cover-up, and some extremists believed that federal law enforcement had deliberately murdered Branch Davidians.
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