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05/06/93
Officials: At least 15 cult bodies had gunshot wounds
By Lee Hancock and Enrique Rangel / The Dallas Morning News
At least 15 bodies recovered from the burned ruins of the Branch Davidian compound suffered gunshot wounds, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, as federal agents and Texas Rangers continue their search for evidence at the Mount Carmel compound, Treasury Department investigators headed to Texas to begin an independent inquiry of the Feb. 28 raid that led to the standoff near Waco, a federal official in Washington said.
FBI Director William Sessions visited Waco on Wednesday to thank city and county officials and residents for supporting the agency during the 51-day siege of the cult compound.
He told reporters that his agency is not being "made a scapegoat' for its management of the standoff, which ended with a fire that consumed the compound and killed 72 cult members.
"I think there are many people that are concerned that people did not come out of that compound alive, that we were not able to extract the children alive,' he said. "People expected us somehow to work the miracle, and all I wish is that we did.'
But he also repeated an assertion he made to Congress last week that news photos of the fire clearly showed that holes knocked in the compound by FBI armored vehicles gave cult members an open passage of escape from the fires.
"They had a fair opportunity to save their own lives,' Mr. Sessions said.
The fires broke out after FBI agents began injecting tear gas into the compound and knocking holes in its walls in an effort to force cult members to surrender.
FBI officials have said that their snipers watched at least one cult member start a fire, and arson investigators have said that the conflagration-which began in at least three separate locations inside the compound-was deliberately set.
Investigators have found increasing evidence that some inside may have died before the inferno. FBI officials said immediately after the fire that their agents heard gunshots inside the cult's buildings after the fires began.
Law enforcement officials said Wednesday that at least 15 bodies recovered had gunshot wounds.
But McLennan County Justice of the Peace James Collier said Wednesday that he has been informed of only seven gunshot victims. He said the information about the wounds of the seven have been released to him because they have been identified by the forensic experts working with the Tarrant County medical examiner's office.
To explain the discrepancy, he said the medical examiner is releasing information about the injuries sustained by each body only after establishing identities.
"Something like 50 have been autopsied, but they're trying to identify the bodies before they notify me as to the cause of death,' Judge Collier said.
The seven gunshot victims include cult leader David Koresh, who sustained a single gunshot to the center of his forehead.
Federal prosecutors indicated in a court document filed this week that investigators culled almost 2,000 pieces of evidence from the compound wreckage, including 200 recognizable weapons, a number of gun parts and tools that can be used to make automatic weapons.
Federal officials have said that investigators found a number of guns that had been converted from semi-automatics to automatics, using machine gun replacement parts. The officials also have indicated that at least one M-60 machine gun and two weapons dropped by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents wounded during the Feb. 28 raid have been recovered.
Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern said Treasury Department investigators were expected to travel to Waco on Wednesday to begin examining information about the initial raid at the cult compound.
Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen ordered an independent review of the raid, which left four agents dead and 16 wounded. Agents from the Secret Service, U.S. Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations division have been assigned to conduct the investigation.
The agents will be given access to investigations conducted by the Texas Rangers for the U.S. attorney's office in Waco, Mr. Stern said.
"They'll get anything we have, except possibly the grand jury material. They'll get all witness interviews, and there are literally hundreds of interviews that have been done or will be done. Everything that's in our file that's not under a court order will be made available,' he said. "One of the objectives is not to get into a duplication of costs.'
Meanwhile, federal officials said ATF agents involved in the Feb.
28 raid will hold a memorial service for the four slain agents at a Waco Baptist church on Saturday afternoon. The service is scheduled to follow a "walk-through' for the raiding teams at the compound and a briefing by federal prosecutors on the ongoing criminal investigations.
ATF senior officials are planning a memorial service May 20 for the four agents at the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington.
During his Wednesday visit, Mr. Sessions told reporters that he has not been told whether Attorney General Janet Reno will dismiss him as FBI director.
"She has not informed me that that is the circumstance,' he said.
"But if it is, she will communicate that to me.'
Mr. Sessions has been under fire since January, when the Justice Department issued a report accusing him of misusing his agency's resources and knowingly claiming an improper tax exemption.
A second report on Feb. 5 accused Mr. Sessions of using his position to obtain a home mortgage loan at a rate lower than offered to other consumers.
Quoting an unnamed Justice Department official, The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Ms. Reno would meet with the director within the next few days to discuss his future.
Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern said he had no information about any meetings scheduled to discuss Mr. Sessions' future. "I know nothing about it,' he said. "A meeting was scheduled. I'm told it was on another subject.'
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