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04/10/93
Cult releases name of 6 killed in raid; FBI doubts death toll By Victoria Loe / The
Dallas Morning News WACO-The Branch Davidians have given authorities the names of six members
who died in the Feb. 28 shootout with federal agents, the FBI said Friday. FBI Special Agent
Richard Schwein cast doubt on the accuracy of the information, saying caustically, "Just because
he said it doesn't mean it's so.' However, the report by Steve Schneider, a deputy to cult
leader David Koresh, was the most direct to date on the death toll inside the sect's compound.
Agent Schwein declined to reveal the names, although he said the list does include Michael
Schroeder and Peter Gent, two cult members previously identified as dead. If Mr. Schneider's
report is accurate, the death toll for the abortive Feb. 28 raid would stand at 10: six cult
members and four agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Officials have
not yet notified relatives of those reportedly killed because they don't know whether the news is
true, Agent Schwein said. He said the list includes five men and one woman. Mr. Schneider
provided no ages or nationalities, he said. Despite the grim news, bursts of hilarity
punctuated the 25-minute media briefing. An air of suppressed hysteria seemed to have settled over
the dozens of law officers and journalists held hostage for six weeks by Mr. Koresh's wiles.
Agent Schwein provoked giggles when he speculated that a cult member observed on the roof of the
compound had sneaked out for an illicit smoke. He drew a big laugh when, discussing the Jewish
tradition of eating only unleavened bread during Passover, he cracked, "I didn't know they were
putting unleavened bread in MREs.' MREs are the pre-packaged military meals the cult is believed
to be subsisting on. A journalist brought down the house when he revealed that jailed cult
member Brad Branch had said that the government wants to obtain samples of Mr. Koresh's DNA not so
it can tie him to crimes but so it can clone a master race. "Are they all that crazy?' the
reporter asked incredulously. All was not levity, however. Agent Schwein took one of the
hardest lines to date when he vowed that "we are going to get them out of there ... to bring
them before the bar of justice for the murder of our agents.' "They're going to answer for
their crimes,' he repeated a few moments later. "That's the bottom line to this whole thing,
they're going to come out.' As always, neither Agent Schwein nor ATF intelligence division
chief David Troy would say when or how the government plans to dislodge Mr. Koresh from his
lair. But Agent Schwein issued a thinly veiled invitation to any cult member who might be
contemplating a defection. "Surely someone in there must realize that the end is coming, and
it's in their self-interest to get out,' he said. "We hope they'll come to their senses.' Also
Friday, a federal official indicated that their efforts to prosecute any cult members will be
directed out of the Justice Department's criminal division in Washington. A six-lawyer federal
prosecuting team has been assembled from the U.S. attorney's offices in Waco and in San Antonio,
where the federal prosecutor's office is based for the Western District of Texas, a federal
official said. But Supervision of the team has been assigned to the Justice Department because
U.S. Attorney Ron Ederer will be leaving office to enter private practice within the next few
weeks. Mr. Ederer declined comment Friday, referring questions to Washington. Outside the
compound Friday afternoon, the tedious vigil for journalist and law enforcement officers alike was
broken briefly by the appearance of billowing red smoke just outside the cult's buildings. A
federal official, who asked not to be identified, said the red smoke came from several smoke
cannisters set off by a cult member about 3:45 p.m. near a compound flagpole. The smoke, which
shrouded the compound for 15 or 20 seconds before being dispersed by wind, was set off after
federal negotiators gave the cult permission to send one member outside to burn incense and a
candle around the grave of cult member killed in the initial firefight. `They had asked to do
it as part of their Passover observance,' the official said. `I don't know what significance of
the smoke canisters was. I guess that was their incense. Maybe it's all they had. It was a
surprise to us. No one expected smoke.'
Staff writer Lee Hancock contributed to this report
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