There isn't much left,
only a few reminders of what
happened 30 years ago. It was h,
just a few miles outside of Wac,
that a religious cult leader nad
David Koresh tried to convince s
followers that he was the Messi.
Well, you know what they think of me.
They think I'm the son of God.
What do you think of David?
I think he's great.
How old are you? I'm 16.
I love him as a brother.
Do you believe he's the son of ?
I hope he is.
But to law enforcement,
Koresh was a criminal, stockpilg
illegal weapons including
machine guns and hand grenades,
and they believed he was a pedophile.
David Koresh knew he was going to go to
prison as a child* and Messiah or not,
he wasn't going to last long in prison.
So on February 28th, 1993,
the ATF aren't with search
and arrest warrants,
went to the compound to seize
the weapons and arrest Koresh.
What happened next, 30 years la,
still haunts those who were the.
We talked to some of them
who offered new insights.
Former agent Blake Boatler was
one of the 76 agents on the rai.
As soon as we stepped off the trailers,
we were met with a hail of autoc
weapons fire, and then they drod
hand grenades on us as well.
The Davidians had been tipped
off at the ATF was coming.
A news photographer asked a main
for directions to the compound.
The media guy said, hey,
ATF and the National Guard are g
to run a war on these religious nuts.
There may be some shooting,
you better get out of there.
The mailman was a member of the cult and
went to the compound to warn Koresh. From
the time that they were tipped
off that we were coming,
they had 46 minutes to prepare.
The ATF had an undercover agent
inside the compound who overhead
that the Davidians knew they wee
coming and warned his commander.
But the ATF went anyway.
According to the ATF, the gun
battle lasted nearly two hours.
Put in perspective, I think the
Alamo was 90 minutes, so it was
the longest continuous gunfightn
American soil since the Civil W.
Four ATF agents were
killed and 16 were wounded.
One of the agents was shot just
feet away from Agent Butler,
who was at the front door.
The automatic weapons fire was t
pouring through those front doo,
and they were these aluminum.
Kind of doors with the
foam insulation inside.
And so as the bullets were tearg
through and going right by my h,
it was like snow.
The Texas Rangers estimated the
ATF agents fired about 1100 rou,
while the Davidians fired
more than 10,000 rounds.
Many of the agents who were there say
they were ordered by the commang
officer to continue with the ra,
even though they knew they had
lost the element of surprise and
he made a decision on his own
that we would move forward.
With warrant, his exact words to
us was let's hurry up and do th,
Ferris. Rooks, still who workedh
the FBI at the time, responded o
the scene days after the shooti.
He agrees the raid was a
failure and also blames Koresh,
who could have simply surrender.
You had two forces, you know you
had a TF and you had David Kore.
Both leaders put their people in
harm's way, which got people ki.
As the raid was going on,
Koresh called 91175 men around our building
and they're shooting at us in Mount Carmel.
Mount Carmel? Yeah, tell them their children
and women in here and they call it off.
6 Branch Davidians were also killed that day.
Eventually there was a ceasefir.
The ATF retreated with their wounded.
David Koresh was also shot
and injured during the raid.
The FBI was called in to
negotiate or surrender.
The siege lasted for 51 days.
During that time, a few people,
including some children,
left the compound,
but most stayed.
On April 19th,
the FBI decided to end the standoff by
shooting tear gas into the comp.
There were more than 80 Davidias
still inside,
including 28 children.
The women and children
went to this walk in what
used to be a dry storage
refrigeration type unit.
Which the FBI termed it The bunr
outside the compound. The FBI
used tanks to penetrate the wal,
calling for the Davidians to surrender.
What happened next horrified the world. The
compound caught fire.
Only 9 Davidians made it out al.
None of the children survived.
So all these women and children
were in there in this concrete m
trying to get away from the fir.
They couldn't get out.
And they were buried alive withr
1,000,000 rounds of of bullets in there.
The question of who started
the fire is still being debated
to this day.
We don't know exactly who started the fire.
It was believed that the Branch Davidians
there was at least three separate fires,
but in fact the Davidians
were actually over gassed.
The FBI believes David Koresh
was shot to death by his right
hand man who then shot himself.
In all, 76 Davidians
died in the fire.
David Koresh was not going to be taken alive.
And he had manipulated these fos
into believing that he was a Messiah,
the Second coming, and
they followed him all the way to death.
In Dallas, I'm Rebecca Lopez.