Case 339: Waco (Part 2/3)

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In the wooded hills of Northern Idaho, just 30-odd miles south of the Canadian border, lies a mountain ridge in the Kaniksu National Forest known as Ruby Ridge. This rugged and remote location was home to 20 acres of land that belonged to a former US. Army Special Forces officer named Randy Weaver. Randy had bought the land in 1983 after his wife, Vicki, who was deeply religious, began having recurring dreams about living on a mountaintop. Believing an apocalypse was imminent and that Vicki's dreams indicated where they needed to be, Randy and Vicki sold their belongings, learned from an Amish community how to live without electricity and build a basic cabin on their newly purchased land. It had no power or running water, but the Weavers made it work. Over the next decade, they turned it into a home for their four children, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Alicia Bar. The family lived a survivalist, self-sufficient lifestyle. Instead of buying food, they hunted and foraged and raised their own livestock. The children were home schooled. Despite their isolated set up, the Weavers made friends with others in the area. They even took in a troubled teenager named Kevin Harris.
Early on the morning of Friday, August 21, 1992, Kevin Harris and 14-year-old Samuel Weaver were walking along a trail that led to the family's cabin, accompanied by one of the Weavers' dogs, a Labrador Retriever named Striker. The trail was wide enough to accommodate an SUV and flanked by heavy woods on either side. When a noise emanated from some nearby brush, Striker barked. The dog approached the brush, still barking loudly. Hoping Striker might have sniffed out some game they could hunt for meat, Samuel and Kevin followed.
According to later testimony from the Weaver family, gunfire suddenly rang out, killing Striker. Three US Marshals dressed from head to toe in camouflage and carrying M16 rifles had been hiding in the surrounding woods as part of a reconnaissance team keeping watch over the property. One of them shot Striker after he revealed their location.
Samuel Weaver cried out, You've killed my dog, you son of a bitch. As he was carrying a firearm, the 14-year-old returned fire.
A second US Marshal shot back in his direction, hitting Samuel in the arm. Samuel began running up a hill back toward the family's house when he was shot again twice in the back and fell face down on the ground. Meanwhile, Kevin had dived behind a tree stump for cover before firing his own gun at the Marshals. He hit and killed one of them. Kevin Harris managed to flee back to the cabin. Wails and despair could be heard from inside its walls as the family discovered that their only son and brother had been killed.
19 rounds had been fired during the confrontation. Three were shot by Samuel Weaver, two by Kevin Harris and fourteen by the three US. Marshals combined. The Marshals story differed somewhat from the Weaver families. They had been at the property as part of a planned raid to arrest Randy Weaver, a white supremacist who'd been on the radar of multiple law enforcement agencies for years. In 1985, a neighbor had accused him of threatening to kill then US. President Ronald Reagan, the governor of Idaho, and Pope John Paul II. It was said that Randy was a member of the racist terror group Aryan Nations and that he had a large cache of firearms.
In 1986, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, known as the ATF, learnt of Randy Weaver after one of their informants met him at the World Aryan Congress, a convention where American neo-Nazis called for the creation of a new white and male-dominated homeland. Randy met with the informant several times and suggested they form a group to fight what he called the Zionist-organized government. This was his term for the United States government, referencing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews secretly run Western states.
The ATF later charged Randy Weaver with selling their undercover informant two shotguns with barrels that had been sawed off below the legal minimum length. In October 1990, a grand jury indicted Randy for possession of illegal weapons. He was granted bail but failed to appear in court for his scheduled trial date.
It was said that Randy possessed multiple firearms and arresting him at his own residence was therefore deemed too dangerous. This led to the US Marshals attempting to arrange for Randy to surrender himself peacefully. After four months of failed negotiations, on Friday, August 21, 1992, the US Marshals descended on the Weaver property under cover of darkness in a planned raid that resulted in 14-year-old Samuel Weaver, a US Marshal named William Bill Deegan and the Weaver's dog being killed. In the Marshals' version of events, Randy Weaver had been with Samuel, Kevin, and Stryker as they approached the brush. They claimed that when Stryker exposed their locations, they shouted to identify themselves, which led to Kevin Harris firing at them and initiating the confrontation. Deputy US Marshal Deegan, who Kevin had mortally wounded, fired seven rounds back, while another Marshal shot Stryker, scared the dog would attack. It was then that Samuel Weaver started firing. Ballistics reports indicated that Samuel was killed by Deputy US Marshal Larry Cooper, though these reports weren't conclusive. Cooper denied shooting Samuel, saying he hit Kevin Harris instead, though there was no evidence that Kevin was struck at all. The FBI later stated that they hadn't realised Samuel Weaver was dead until days after the shootout.