Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993 TAG: 9304210107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WACO, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
Whatever happened in the final hours at the Branch Davidian compound Monday, federal agents - under intense scrutiny for starting a tank-and-tear-gas assault that apparently precipitated the fire - said responsibility for the carnage rests solely with the group's leader, David Koresh.
President Clinton echoed that sentiment, calling Koresh "dangerous, irrational and probably insane." Koresh "killed those he controlled, and he bears ultimate responsibility for the carnage that ensued," Clinton said.
The president Tuesday ordered an investigation into federal agents' handling of the 51-day siege.
Clinton stoutly defended Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI in their decision to move against the compound on Monday, saying he had given his support to the plan during a 15-minute phone conversation with Reno on Sunday.
Nevertheless, the president called on the Justice and Treasury departments to launch a "vigorous and thorough investigation" to assess the performance of agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and conclude "whether anything could have been done differently."
Koresh and 85 others, including 17 children under age 10, were believed to have died in the fire. There were nine survivors, four of whom remained hospitalized Tuesday.
Investigators began pulling bodies out of the rubble, but were slowed because "ammunition was still cooking and exploding" in the wreckage, said FBI agent Jeff Jamar. Officials said it could take two weeks to gather all the evidence.
Among developments Tuesday:
The House Judiciary Committee announced it would begin its own inquiry into the Waco siege. Committee Chairman Jack Brooks, D-Texas, said he would convene hearings on April 28, with key witnesses to include Reno, FBI Director William Sessions and Stephen Higgins, chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Texas Rangers began investigating the deadly shootouts that erupted at the beginning of the siege, during raids Feb. 28 by ATF agents. Four agents were killed and 16 wounded while trying to execute search warrants for alleged firearms violations. Koresh had said six cultists also were killed in the shootouts.
State officials were trying to determine the best future for children who were made orphans by the fire. Thirty-six people, 21 of them children, had left the compound after the siege began. The state's Child Protective Services division has custody of 11 of them; 10 others were released to relatives.
"Most of the 21 have lost at least one parent, and some have lost both parents in the fire," said Stewart Davis, a spokesman for the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.
At the compound, which the cultists sometimes had called "Ranch Apocalypse," early searches indicated some of them may have been killed by gunfire before the blaze began, Jamar said.
One body with a gunshot wound was found in the remains of the buildings, but it was uncertain when that person was shot, Jamar said. "There might have been people killed who were trying to get out of the compound," he said.
Jamar and other FBI agents have said they believe many cultists gathered in a concrete cinder-block room at the center of the compound before the fire, perhaps to escape tear gas. But Collier said cultists may have been spread throughout the compound when the fire began. Investigators couldn't immediately get into the cinder-block room.
Detailing his Sunday phone conversation with Reno, Clinton said she gave four reasons for deciding to move on Monday: Authorities lacked the resources to continue the siege indefinitely; there was no chance of resolving the standoff through negotiations; each passing day increased the danger that cult members would hurt themselves or others; and evidence was mounting that the children inside "were being abused significantly."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB