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03/02/93
Law officers close in on cult; Four more children released-- Leader's relatives plead for surrender
By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News
WACO -- After a day of eerie quiet, the standoff between federal agents and members of a well-armed religious sect escalated dramatically Monday evening.
A long column of vans with tinted windows closed in on the headquarters of the Branch Davidians, who killed four federal agents and wounded 15 others in a gunbattle Sunday.
A caravan of armored fighting vehicles carrying National Guard troops left a staging area at a Waco college and approached the compound along a back road. Meanwhile, authorities forced reluctant reporters to move from within sight of the compound to a holding area about two miles away.
Authorities contacted by phone refused to divulge any information about what was occurring at the compound. As midnight approached, there were no indications of further activity at the site.
Negotiations between sect members and federal agents had continued throughout the day, and the group released four children late in the afternoon, bringing the total to 10.
In a telephone conversation from inside the compound, a sect member said the group, which is believed to number about 70, hoped to continue negotiations until all children had been released.
"We want the children to be safe,' said Steve Schneider, a follower of David Koresh. Mr. Koresh, who was born Vernon Howell but changed his name in 1990, claims to be Christ, come in the flesh again to bring about the end of the world.
Two children were turned over to federal authorities at 3:50 p.m., and two more less than an hour later. Authorities did not know how many children remained inside the building.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Koresh's father and grandmother made impassioned televised pleas for him to surrender. Mr. Koresh, who said Sunday that he had been shot in the stomach, remained inside the compound.
Officials could not confirm his injuries or his contentions that a child died in the initial raid. Law officers said a cult member was killed during a second shootout Sunday evening.
About 150 FBI agents gathered outside the compound Monday, including the agency's elite hostage rescue team from Washington and 22 agents from Dallas.
Authorities would not say how many officers were on the scene, but they included units of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, National Guard, Texas Department of Public Safety, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, the McLennan County sheriff's office and local police departments.
Waco, a city of about 104,000 people, is about 100 miles south of Dallas.
Spokesmen for both sides indicated that they were settling in for a long siege. Asked how long negotiations would continue, ATF spokeswoman Sharon Wheeler said, "it's up to him,' meaning Mr. Koresh.
Sunday confrontation
The confrontation began when armed ATF agents went to the compound about 9:30 a.m. Sunday to search for illegal weapons and arrest Mr. Koresh, 33. Besides the AFT agents who died in the hourlong exchange of gunfire, sect members said a 2-year-old girl had died within the compound and an unspecified number of members, including Mr. Koresh, had been wounded.
ATF officials identified the slain agents and their field divisions as Steve Willis, 32, Houston; Robert J. Williams, 26, New Orleans;
Conway LeBleu, 30, New Orleans; and Todd McKeehan, 28, New Orleans.
About 6 p.m. Sunday, three sect members tried to escape. One was captured. He was arraigned Monday on charges of attempted murder and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.
He was identified as Delrow Nash, 28, of Jamaica, according to federal court records. Mr. Nash was arraigned in the McLennan County Jail before Magistrate Dennis Green, who ordered him held without bail pending a detention hearing March 9.
According to affidavits, Mr. Nash fired on an ATF agent who was trying to apprehend him as he attempted to flee.
As the siege continued, the firearms bureau tried to deflect a growing chorus of questions from other law enforcement officials about whether it had botched Sunday's raid.
"They practiced this in a way that they thought would save the most lives,' Ms. Wheeler said. "They practiced it in a way where they could get their hands on him (Mr. Koresh) and protect the people in the compound.'
Asked what went wrong, she said, "I don't believe we were outmanned or outplanned. The problem we had was that we were outgunned.'
ATF agents earlier said they believe that the cult was tipped off about their raid. Cult leaders denied having advance information but said they suspected that law officers were preparing an assault.
Ms. Wheeler refused to release information about the arsenal agents suspect is hidden inside the compound.
"We just know from the holes in our vehicles, in some of our helicopters, and unfortunately some of our agents, that there was some very high-powered ammunition that is used in big guns,' she said.
Eight of the wounded ATF agents remained hospitalized Monday. At Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, seven were in stable condition. The eighth, at Providence Hospital, was in serious condition.
Authorities have known since at least 1987 that the Davidians possessed a formidable stock of weapons. That was when a rivalry between Mr. Koresh and the group's then-leader, George Roden, culminated in a gunbattle on the group's property.
Mr. Koresh and seven others were charged with attempted murder.
The seven were acquitted, and charges against Mr. Koresh were dropped after a mistrial. Mr. Roden was sent to Vernon State Hospital in 1990 in connection with a separate criminal case.
El-Hadi J. Shabazz, the assistant district attorney of McLennan County who prosecuted Mr. Koresh, said authorities seized a massive array of weapons after the shootout.
"One sheriff's deputy who helped make the arrest, said they had enough weapons and ammo to hold off all of the McLennan County Sheriff's Department, all of the Waco Police Department, and all of the local National Guard,' he said. "When the jury came back with an acquittal, it sent chills through us.'
More recently, Mr. Koresh has been the subject of complaints ranging from polygamy to sex with minors to child abuse. He confirmed Sunday that he has fathered "many' children by various sect members, but he denied any abuse of children, including sexual contact.
Quiet scene
Except for the flurry of late-afternoon activity, the scene near the compound Monday was strangely still.
One armored personnel carrier was visible on a rise some distance from the compound. Next to it sat a trailer from which several horses in Western saddles emerged.
A farmhouse served as the federal agents' headquarters. Several trailers, vans and cars as well as large antennas were visible nearby. Most of the time, nothing moved, inside or outside the compound, as an intermittent drizzle fell.
The releases of the children Monday afternoon were televised live.
Footage showed cars leaving the compound to rendezvous with federal agents parked on nearby roads. The women driving the cars returned to the compound after the children were handed off.
In the first exchange, an infant wrapped in a blanket and a girl who appeared to be about 5 years old were released to authorities. The second exchange involved two girls who appeared slightly older.
Authorities said all the children appeared to be in good condition and were in the hands of state Child Protective Services. The president of Hillcrest hospital said Monday night that one of the children from the compound had been treated for an illness, not injuries, and released. He would not give further information.
Leader's relatives
Mr. Koresh's father pleaded in a television news interview for him to give himself up peacefully.
"If you're listening, please, son, give up,' said Bobby Howell of Liberty, Texas, in an interview with KHOU-TV (Channel 11). "There should be no more bloodshed.'
Mr. Koresh's mother, Bonnie Haldeman, gave The Associated Press a chilling description of a message her son had left on her answering machine Sunday.
"Hello, mama. It's your boy,' he reportedly said. "They shot me, and I'm dying, all right? But I'll be back real soon, OK?
"I'll see y'all in the skies. Bye.'
Despite Mr. Koresh's references to death, Mr. Schneider said early
Monday afternoon that the sect leader was "doing well' despite his wounds. However, he said Mr. Koresh could not come to the phone because he was in another part of the sprawling headquarters.
Mr. Schneider said the group was in contact with sheriff's officers and federal agents. He said the sect members would continue to release children from the compound and hoped to reach a peaceful resolution to the impasse.
He declined to say how many children were still inside. Asked whether they were, in effect, the sect's bargaining chips, he said, "exactly.'
Mr. Schneider said the group has made no specific demands beyond asking that their religious message be broadcast on KRLD-AM (1080) radio and seeking guarantees for their safety. He said, however, that Mr. Koresh would like to arrange a broadcast discussion between himself and traditional religious leaders.
"We want to work this out,' he said. "But we don't want to be rushed.'
Staff writers Victoria Loe, Todd Copilevitz, Jeffrey Weiss, Aline McKenzie and Tracy Everbach contributed to this report.
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