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04/21/93
Many officers making plans to head home; FBI dismantling command post
By Todd J. Gillman / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-By Tuesday afternoon, many federal agents in Waco for the Branch Davidian siege already were arranging flights back home.
"I'm leaving tomorrow,' said Jerry Singer, a Chicago-based agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "I'm starting my sixth week in Waco.'
More than 150 ATF agents are among about 400 officers from various state and federal agencies who had gathered in Waco since the Feb. 28 raid that left four ATF agents dead and 16 wounded. More than 80 state Department of Public Safety troopers and 25 to 35 Texas Rangers also were assigned to Waco during the siege.
ATF agents from around the country have taken turns on cult standoff duty, Agent Singer said. The largest contingents now in Waco are from the Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston and St. Paul, Minn., offices, he said.
But after the hourlong blaze Monday that ended the standoff and apparently killed all but nine cult members, FBI and ATF officials said that far fewer officers are needed.
FBI hostage negotiators will leave Waco soon, although the agency's specialists in disaster response have been called in to help Rangers and medical examiners identify remains, Agent Jeffrey Jamar, the FBI special agent who headed the bureau's Waco operation, said Tuesday in the last of the agency's daily news conferences.
Electricity and phone lines had already been disconnected late Tuesday at the FBI command post at Texas State Technical College, and agents were putting equipment into trailers.
Although FBI forensics experts will assist in the investigation, the agency's primary mission in Waco ended Monday, Agent Carlos Fernandez said. "We had jurisdiction over the whole situation here. Since that came to a resolution, our business is pretty much over with.'
Also Tuesday, local law enforcement agencies began planning for life after the siege.
"Hopefully, we'll return to some semblance of normalcy,' said McLennan County Sheriff's Lt. Truman Simons, head of criminal investigations.
Lt. Simons said his department was stretched thin but has been aided by a relatively light crime load for the past seven weeks.
The Texas Rangers now take charge of the criminal investigation into the siege.
"The crime scene is now the Texas Rangers',' said Agent Jamar.
The Rangers will lead the investigation because "murder is a state
crime,' said ATF spokesman Bruce Snyder.
Besides investigating the shootings at the compound, the Texas Rangers also have been charged with finding the person who ATF agents say alerted cult leader David Koresh to the Feb. 28 raid.
ATF officials contend that the warning cost the agents the element of surprise and was largely responsible for the deaths on both sides.
Capt. Maurice Cook, in charge of the Rangers, has declined to discuss the investigation into the alleged leak. He referred all questions to federal prosecutors.
An ATF agent wounded in the raid has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the Waco Tribune-Herald and one of its reporters of tipping off Mr. Koresh.
The newspaper and the reporter have denied the allegation.
Staff writer George Kuempel contributed to this report.
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