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03/03/93
Negotiations with cult drag on: 14 may be dead in compound; Group's leader fails to give up as promised
By Lee Hancock, George Kuempel / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-The armed standoff between hundreds of officers and an embattled religious sect dragged agonizingly on Tuesday night amid reports that officials would find as many as 14 bodies inside the heavily fortified compound.
The continuing impasse dashed hopes that had been raised earlier in the day by the group's leader, self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh.
"I, David Koresh, agree upon the broadcasting of this tape to come out peacefully with all the people immediately,' the leader of the Branch Davidians said in an hourlong message carried at 1:30 p.m. by radio and TV stations throughout Texas.
The movement of several vehicles including a bus from the compound about 8:20 p.m. gave rise to speculation that 20 more children had been freed. The report was first made by a federal agent on duty at a Waco hospital. The agency later retracted the report after state child-welfare officials said they had no such information.
An unknown number of adults and children remained inside the headquarters east of Waco, and it was unclear whether Mr. Koresh would honor his promise to surrender.
State and federal officials who declined to be named said late Tuesday that as many as 14 cult members had died in the initial firefight Sunday.
Authorities refused to say what, if anything, stood in the way of a resolution.
"If he's talking to God, we're just going to have to wait and see,' said Jack Killorin, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
A McLennan County official who was familiar with negotiations said as many as 14 people are believed dead and "a whole lot' are wounded.
He said questions also had arisen regarding the handling of the cult followers who were to be charged in connection with the initial firefight. The county jail is over capacity, and authorities were trying to determine where to put the arrested cult members, should they surrender.
A McLennan County justice of the peace who was called to the site by sheriff's officials said his presence would not have been sought unless an inquest were necessary.
"If there was not a death, I would not have been called,' said Justice of the Peace David Pareya. "I was asked to be there.'
He said he returned to his office after waiting idly at the site for two hours.
Despite the carnage, Mr. Koresh sought to portray himself Tuesday as a gentle soul. "I'm sure you're all aware of how I'm involved in a very serious thing right now,' he said in his broadcast.
"I am really concerned about the lives of my brethren here and also really concerned even greater about the lives of all those in this world.'
Earlier Tuesday, the sect had released two adults and eight children, bringing the number of children freed at that point to 18.
The grisly saga began Sunday morning, when about 100 ATF agents tried to arrest Mr. Koresh on a federal weapons charge. Sect members fired on the agents, killing four and wounding 15.
The Davidians believe Mr. Koresh is Christ, returned to bring about the end of the world by opening the mystical Seven Seals described in the biblical book of Revelation. Mr. Koresh told The Dallas Morning News Sunday that the government's assault on his followers is tantamount to his crucifixion.
ATF spokesmen have said Mr. Koresh was tipped off to the raid, but he has denied it.
Tuesday night, Mr. Killorin said the ATF had originally planned the raid for Monday morning but moved it forward by one day after learning that the Waco Tribune-Herald would begin publishing a highly critical seven-part series on the sect Saturday.
Mr. Killorin said ATF agents "don't blame the paper for the decision to publish.' He added, "The real impact is what it (the article) did to people inside the compound, how it affected their thinking, their mood.'
Another ATF spokesman, Tom Hill, said: "We feared their reaction.
You can look at it in two ways: in terms of suicide and in terms of injury to other people.'
Bob Lott, editor of the paper, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. However, in previous days he had said he believed the Tribune-Herald acted responsibly in publishing in the articles.
"I don't believe Vernon Howell (Mr. Koresh's name before he legally changed it in 1990) would have done anything differently if we had not reported the story,' Mr. Lott told The Dallas Morning News Sunday.
Mr. Killorin emphasized that ATF officials do not believe the the change in plans effected agents' readiness for the raid.
"The operation had literally been drilled and practiced for week,' Mr., Hill said. "Moving it up one day was a minor change in plan.'
Other law enforcement agencies have criticized the planning and execution of the operation. ATF officials have defended it, saying that they were simply outgunned.
The hours before and after Tuesday's broadcast were filled with intense activity, as the many agencies involved in the standoff prepared to receive and process the sect's members.
An array of official vehicles converged on the sect's headquarters, which was besieged by awe-inspiring ranks of military and police units, all armed to the teeth.
Mr. Killorin said about 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officials were involved in the siege. He said National Guard personnel were providing logistical support and armored personnel carriers, which are being used "because they are the only thing capable of withstanding a .50-caliber round.'
Authorities have speculated that the high-powered weapons stockpiled by the group include a .50-caliber machine gun.
About 25 minutes into Mr. Koresh's rambling radio address, two prison buses drove past the media holding area toward the compound about two miles away. Half an hour later, a Waco Fire Department truck pulling a trailer laden with floodlights headed in the same direction.
As everyone waited for Mr. Koresh to make good on his promise of surrender, several ambulances drove to within about a half mile of the compound, where they parked with lights flashing.
In addition to the school bus, several other vehicles left the compound about 8:30 p.m. It was not known where or why they were moving.
Earlier in the day, personnel at the federal courthouse were told to prepare to arraign as many as 50 people.
One sect member was arraigned Monday. He was captured Sunday night while attempting to escape the compound. He was charged with firing on a federal agent during the escape attempt and held without bail.
Tuesday, state employees with Children's Protective Services readied requests for court orders to give the state custody of the children of sect members.
At the central command post on the campus of the Texas State Technical College, officials set up briefing tents on the lawn. Hundreds of agents passed in and out of the barracks at the former military field, which includes an aircraft hangar and airstrip.
Just before 11 a.m., a number of buses and heavily armed ATF agents carrying plastic flex-cuffs left the base for the compound. Dozens of agents began carrying tables, chairs and stenography machines into the hangar, students and instructors at the college said.
Then ATF agents began evacuating the campus. Students said armed officers entered classrooms and told them to leave.
During Mr. Koresh's message a caravan including two prison buses left the command post for the compound.
Waco hospitals were put on alert Tuesday morning. At Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, which already is caring for seven ATF agents wounded in Sunday's gun battle, hospital personnel set up a triage area outside the emergency room. They also designated a temporary morgue area.
Hospital administrators said they had been told that Mr. Koresh would begin releasing people in pairs about 2:30 p.m. and that they should expect to treat at least two wounded. Mr. Koresh has said he was shot Sunday.
Shortly before 1 p.m., additional agents arrived at the hospital in a large white truck and took up positions on rooftops surrounding the emergency room. They surveyed the area through binoculars and clutched assault rifles to their chests.
Ashley Karger, whose mother is an emergency room nurse at Hillcrest, waited outside.
"She worked all day yesterday,' Ms. Karger said of her mother. "She was in scrubs from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. They've all been preparing for what they think might happen. They're expecting a lot of wounded. The tension for them is unbelievable,' she said.
The strain increased at about 4 p.m., when the hospital received a bomb threat, the second in three days. Hospital personnel searched but discovered no bomb.
Tensions also flared when police and AFT agents repeatedly questioned a man who was waiting near the emergency room driveway.
His pickup truck had three religious bumper stickers, including one that read, "Proclaim His Salvation Jesus Christ.'
Asked whether he was a member of the Branch Davidians, he said, "Not hardly.' The man was not detained.
As dozens of rumors swirled through the town, one was laid to rest.
Asked whether President Clinton might visit the injured agents, a senior White House official said it was unlikely the president would come to Waco while the standoff continued.
It was not known how many Davidians had been killed or injured.
One was killed during Sunday night's escape attempt, and Mr. Koresh
said a 2-year-old girl had died in the initial battle. He said several had been injured but would not give a specific number.
ATF negotiators began trying to talk the Davidians out of their stronghold Sunday afternoon. Mr. Koresh agreed to release children two-by-two if radio station KRLD in Dallas played a brief religious message he had composed. The releases started and continued sporadically after the station began airing the message.
Monday, FBI hostage negotiators arrived on the scene. Tuesday, spokesmen for the FBI and the ATF made conflicting statements, with each one claiming to be in control of the negotiations.
The scene near the comopund was mostly quiet until around nightfall Monday, when officials forced journalists to leave the area as columns of vans and armored vehicles approached the compound. More than twenty-four hours later, officers still were working to bring the ordeal to its final resolution.
Staff writers Victoria Loe, Jeffrey Weiss, Nancy St. Pierre, Al Brumley and Todd Copilevitz contributed to this report.
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