“In the United States … we investigate first and then we charge, we don’t charge first and then investigate. The bikers and their attorneys have argued that police swept up many who were trying to escape the violence. Like the others, Obledo was accused of engaging in organised criminal activity. “Rather than investigating the incident and relying on actual facts to establish probable cause, defendants theorized that a conspiracy of epic proportion between dozens of people had taken place, and willfully ignored the total absence of facts to support their ‘theory’,” Obledo’s suit says.Īccording to his lawsuit, the father of six was a real estate analyst whose only affiliation was to the Christian Motorcycle Association and he was running away from trouble with a copy of the New Testament in his vest pocket. One of those has been brought by Diego Obledo, who contends that he was not armed that day, and was arrested for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. “The way in which this case started created a lot of problems down the line.”Ībout 130 civil rights lawsuits are pending against Waco authorities. Just forensically, in terms of collection of evidence, it’s kind of a nightmare, with so many people around, to know where to start,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center. “I think the situation probably just overwhelmed a small county and its resources. They argue that police swept up many who were trying to escape the violence.
COSSACKS AND BANDIDOS TRIAL
In an unrelated trial in San Antonio last year, the Bandidos’ national president and vice-president were sentenced to life in prison for crimes including racketeering, drug trafficking and conspiracy to murder.īut bikers and their attorneys have long contested the narrative that emerged after the shooting, which suggested all who gathered at Twin Peaks that day in May were members of warring criminal gangs with murder in mind. When the jury failed to reach unanimous verdicts on the three counts against Carrizal after six weeks, the case ended in a mistrial in November 2017. “It wasn’t supposed to go like that,” he said. A Waco police officer wept on the stand as he recalled the bloody scene. Jake Carrizal, a Bandidos chapter president from Dallas, was the only suspect whose case reached court. A lot of people lost their homes, lost their family.” I couldn’t do anything – nobody wanted us around,” he said. “When I finally got out of jail I called the owner, he said, ‘Can’t have gang members working for me.’ So I lost my job, as a lot of people did. The 62-year-old had worked for a roofing company before the shootout. Luther said he spent 33 days behind bars, racking up $1,000 in phone bills by speaking with his wife twice a day. Many could not afford to pay and languished in jail for weeks until their bonds were lowered. “I think it is important to send a message,” he told the Waco Tribune-Herald. Photograph: Jerry Larson/APĪ justice of the peace, “Pete” Peterson, set bonds at $1m each. The 177 arrested were held on identical warrants and accused of engaging in organised criminal activity, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison.Īfter the shooting, 177 suspects were arrested and held on bonds of $1m each. The violence lasted no more than a couple of minutes, but so many suspects were detained that they were taken to the city’s spacious convention centre for processing. A spokesman said a firearm was found hidden in a bag of tortilla chips and a knife in a bag of flour. Waco police said in the aftermath that they recovered hundreds of weapons, including handguns, an AK-47 rifle, brass knuckles, bats, chains and knives. Police and the district attorney’s office declined to comment on those details at the time, but defended the officers’ use of force. 223-caliber rifles - the only type of weapon used by Waco police that day. Little evidence has been made public, but details obtained by the Associated Press suggested that four of the bikers were struck with bullets from. Anticipating tension, police were already nearby and arrived within seconds. Leaked CCTV footage showed customers and servers dashing for cover and men in leather jackets crouching behind tables with guns drawn. Really at that point I didn’t know who was shooting.” “We decided we needed to move so we crawled military style on our stomachs up the patio stairs, through the patio and into the restaurant where we lay on the ground in the restaurant till the police came in. I looked up and saw Richie hit the ground, saw him bleeding from the head, started seeing people dying and falling all around me,” said Richard Luther, then a Cossack. “I curled up in a foetal position with three other people.
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