30 years have passed since one of the
most tragic events in Texas his.
April 19th, 1993, A 51 day standoff came
to a deadly end just outside of Waco.
As many as 82 people,
including 28 children, died.
Mike Caps was a reporter for CNN that spring.
He covered the story from
start to horrific finish.
Who all set Mr. Hernandez? His voice is
well known in Central TX 10 breg
ball deep to laugh. Mike Caps
has been the voice of the Roundk
Express since their very first .
In fact, he's only missed 6 exps
games in the past 23 seasons
before he became a baseball
play by play announcer and the
voice of the express caps was
a news reporter. My caps live
with many Southeast Texas to St.
Louis, MO to Dallas to CNN.
Caps covered stories all around the world,
15 Hurricanes along the Gulf Co.
16 Space Shuttle missions,
including the Challenger disaster First
television reporter in the history of
State of Texas to witness an execution.
One of the biggest stories he wd
cover would begin February the 28th 1993.
An ATF raid of the Mount Carmel
compound had turned deadly.
The agents were there to serve
arrest and search warrants on te
Branch Davidians and their lead,
David Koresh, who lived at Mount Carmel.
The raid quickly turned violent.
4 agents were killed, 16 others were hurt.
2 1/2 hours later, I was standi.
On a macadam road right near the compound,
I would have hoped that we'd hae
been there 2436 hours and done.
After I talked to one of my FBI friends
and he explained to me what had transpired
and how it got to be the way it.
There was no doubt in my mind we
were going to be there a while.
He would arrive in Waco and be
there for more than two months.
And I ain't moving. I ain't bud.
I ain't scared of these people.
Caps covered the siege for CNN from a
makeshift studio and a travel trailer
on a road not far from the compound. CNN
basically works 17 on and selling off.
It was the way they did.
It was always something going o.
There's a news conference at 10:30 AM,
ten, ten am, 10:30 AM that I go
sit down with my FBI guys and
they would translate and give me
more detail than what was said
during those news conferences.
Due to operational safety.
I cannot tell you, but.
I told you that more agents are in route
over including agents ground sut
personnel in excess. I would say
of 150 to 200 people were invol.
You just wondered if it would ever end
like good reporters do.
Caps was able to develop sources on site,
sources that tipped him off on l
18th that things were about to wrap up.
I got a phone call. Let's see.
Must have been about 11:30 the night before.
And it was one of my FBI buddies
saying you, you got to get out .
At approximately 5:55 AM this morning,
Branch Davidian member Steve Snyder was
telephonically contact contacted
advised that the FBI would begin shortly
to insert tear gas into the compound.
Snyder immediately hung up the phone.
He was on the air that day,
April 19th, at 6:00 AM. At that point,
the building was still intact.
The FBI began to move an M60,
that's a combat engineering veh,
to the southwest corner of the compound,
where our agents were met with
a volley of gunfire. They're
punching a hole in it.
You see it right there.
See, they've made a massive hole
in the side of that building.
Then here come the tanks,
punch holes in the wall, and the
next thing you know. Game on, m.
He signed on and reported live m
the scene for 10 hours that day.
We had a really good vantage po,
especially with a long lens on a camera.
You just saw those holes punched in the
side of the of the walls and you thought,
nobody's going to get out of
this alive. Bonnie,
let me interrupt you just for a second.
Off to the right side of the sc,
you can see three or four people, apparently.
It looks like federal agents out there.
Bonnie, the entire roof is gone.
The entire roof is gone.
Mike, what else can you tell us?
Any sign of firefighting
equipment? I know. No,
none whatsoever.
And there there's our shot
from you'll remember, Bonnie,
what we referred to as Farm Cam,
that's looking from the north
side into the compound.
Apparently the north side is ist
involved yet, but it appears the rest of
the compound is filled with that orange.
Fire and acrid black smoke.
This fire is completely out of
control and still no indication,
no sign that anybody is coming .
It was heartbreaking to see it in like that,
knowing little children had burd
to death or had been shot to de.
Suicides had taken place and the whole
thing so easily could have been avoided.
My processing came years later.
When I figured out I needed there and
and it and it didn't come easil,
Caps travels through Waco often when he
visits family in North and East Texas.
He admits that he rarely thinks
about Mount Carmel anymore,
but he does understand that being there on
that fateful day helped shape. Who he is.
I'm glad I was there,
looking back through 72 years that God
has allowed me to be on this ea.
It was a seminal moment in that it was
a perspective that I needed to e
to draw on in during tragedies.s
is not covering those tragedies anymore,
but he is still using his voice to tell
stories from high above the baseball field.
Mike Caps paints a picture for his listeners.
Just like he did on that fateful day, April
19th, 1993,
eleven surviving Branch Davidian
members were charged with the murders.
Of those 4ATF agents who were
killed in the initial raid,
none were convicted on the most
serious charges, but several wee
found guilty of lesser charges.
The Attorney General at the tim,
Janet Reno, later said she regrd
authorizing that initial raid.
In 2000, it was determined the S
government did not cause the fi,
although many still disagree
with that independent report.