Bandidos’ attorney: Police account of Twin Peaks shooting ‘false,’ ‘damaging’

The Bandidos Motorcycle Club released a statement Monday responding to police and other accounts of the May 17 shootout at Twin Peaks that killed nine people, injured another 20 and landed 177 people in jail.

Las Vegas attorney Stephen Stubbs, who said he is representing the national club solely for the purpose of constructing and distributing the release, called the violence “senseless, completely unnecessary and wrong.”

Stubbs described statements made by the Waco Police Department as “untrue,” citing the list of weapons, which now totals 488 and could still increase, as misleadingly high.

Police have said the list of weapons found on the scene includes 151 firearms — 12 of which were long guns — knives, brass knuckles, batons, tomahawks, weighted weapons, a hatchet, stun guns, bats, clubs, a machete, a pipe, an ax, pepper spray and a chain.

Stubbs argued that police have intentionally left out that the reason bikers were present that day was a regional meeting for the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents, which he said was scheduled in Waco so that various chapters of Texas clubs could conveniently access the location.

Legal documents filed in the case say the meeting of the Region 1 Confederation of Clubs and Independents was moved from Austin to the Twin Peaks in Waco, and that nearly all of the recent Region 1 COC&I meetings had been held in Austin. The documents allege it is not common for members of any of the other 11 COC&I regions in Texas to attend a regional meeting of another area of the Texas COC&I. Many of the 177 bikers arrested in the Twin Peaks shootout were from outside Region 1.

But Stubbs contends that was specifically the purpose of holding the meeting in Waco. He added that specific speakers were invited to the meeting so that multiple regions could discuss biker-related political issues in one forum. He said that because COC&I members from across the state were expected to attend this special meeting, it was purposefully scheduled in Waco because it’s a central city between Austin and Dallas.

Stubbs said police have consistently released information that denigrates the Bandidos and that their “false narrative is damaging to everyone involved.”

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton has said the number and variety of weapons “indicates to the public that these are not (motorcycle) clubs, these are criminal gangs that came here with the intent or anticipation of violence.” The Texas Department of Public Safety has classified the Bandidos as a criminal street gang.

Stubbs disputes the idea Bandidos members anticipated violence that day and called on the department to release video evidence and autopsy reports so the public can see what happened for themselves.

The preliminary autopsy reports were released days after the shooting and are publicly available, but the final written reports have not been completed, officials have said.

“I believe wholeheartedly that the Waco police have that information,” Stubbs said, adding that he thinks officials already know which caliber bullets killed which bikers.

He added, “The coroner has examined these bodies as much as he’s going to examine these bodies.”

Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson, who ordered the nine autopsies, said Tuesday that final autopsy results have not been returned and can take anywhere between a month to three months to return to his office.

“They do a complete autopsy, and toxicology is part of it,” he said. “The lab work is usually what takes the longest.”

He said that the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office also prioritizes their own county’s cases, aside from receiving work from other non-medical examiner counties like McLennan.

The preliminary autopsy results, which were returned in the first few days following the shooting, show each of the nine men killed had gunshot wounds listed as the cause of death and homicide listed as the manner of death.

Several of the documents indicate where on their bodies the men were shot. For example, Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, the only person from Waco killed in the shootout, suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his head, a preliminary autopsy document shows.

Stubbs said he thinks officials should release video, at the very least, to “clear up rampant misinformation.”

“Video has no bias. Video is completely independent,” he said. “Science doesn’t have a bias; it’s independent. We want the independent evidence out to contradict the misinformation that’s been released.”

Swanton has said officials sent the videos to the FBI for analysis. He said the footage likely includes images from at least one squad car dash camera, Twin Peaks restaurant surveillance cameras and a surveillance camera from the neighboring Don Carlos Mexican restaurant.

On May 20, the Tribune-Herald filed a request under Texas’ Public Information Act for all video from the shooting, including security surveillance from Twin Peaks and Don Carlos, as well as any dash cam or body camera footage. Waco police objected to the release of the videos and sent the request to the Texas Attorney General’s office on June 2, seeking an opinion.

The Texas Public Information Act allows governmental agencies to withhold from public disclosure certain law enforcement records if the release would “interfere with the detection, investigation or prosecution of a crime.”

The Attorney General’s Office has up to 45 business days to issue an opinion on whether the police department must release any videos from the shooting.

“There are things that we know that we cannot talk about until trial,” Swanton has said, adding the department is concerned about tainting a potential jury pool.

Stubbs responded, “Either you don’t want to taint the jury pool and you don’t talk or you are talking and you are tainting the jury pool. You can’t have it both ways. It seems to me that they are tainting the jury pool in their favor.”

Stubbs said that members of the Bandidos were not aggressors in the shootout and didn’t start the altercation, strike first, or pull weapons first and the video footage would reflect that account. Stubbs said the majority of the Bandidos present that day took cover and that all involvement by Bandidos was in self-defense.

“It’s very clear why the Bandidos showed up,” Stubbs said. “They were there to attend a political meeting and nothing else.”

Rank	Poster	FR Age	Posts	Replies	Replies per Post
1	TexasGator	1.9y	24	15	0.6
2	don-o	16.8y	9	7	0.8
3	wastoute	16.7y	6	9	1.5
4	raybbr	14.2y	2	1	0.5
5	sport	15.3y	1	0	0.0
6	mac_truck	13.5y	3	4	1.3
7	Catsrus	6.1y	1	1	1.0
8	justlurking	16.9y	1	1	1.0
9	left that other site	6.0y	1	0	0.0
10	House Atreides	3.7y	4	5	1.3
11	ImJustAnotherOkie	7.8y	1	0	0.0
12	Prolixus	12.4y	1	0	0.0
13	Texas Fossil	6.8y	3	7	2.3
14	Triple	17.4y	1	1	1.0
15	T-Bone Texan	10.3m	1	0	0.0

Jury for what trial? If the police story we are given is true the murderers are dead now. So just what potential trials are we talking about?

THAT is a very good point.

Ten, 15 years from now, folks looking back are going to be amazed that this wasn't identified for what it was within the first 48 hours: a calculated and planned arrest technique where a specific demographic of private citizens exercising lawful right of assembly at a very public political meeting, could "legally" be immediately very harshly punished for being there with virtually ZERO consequences for the "police" (read Federal police state) who made the wrongful arrests.

The Waco police, official fall-guys, are perfectly willing to let this go to court -- "We'll get it all sorted out, just be patient. If police were in error, they'll be brought to justice."

But the harsh punishment and virtual destruction of a very specific patriotic demographic of peaceful, law-abiding citizens' livelihoods, reputations, finances, personal and professional lives ALREADY HAPPENED within the first two weeks. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

The MSM and the police have worked overtime to convince gullible people that those arrested were not peaceful, law-abiding citizens, and have succeeded quite well.

WHEN this model/scenario happens again somewhere in America -- and it will -- the "criminals" that "law enforcement experts" and the MSM will "expose" to Americans, may or may not be motorcycle enthusiasts, but they WILL belong to a demographic that is fiercely pro-American, pro-2nd amendment, pro Veteran, independently resourceful and skilled in some area -- shooting, flying, mechanical, etc, -- needed to repel forceful tyranny.

It won't matter HOW many Americans smell a rat -- those skilled individuals will have been instantly very harshly punished simply in the act of being arrested, essentially taken out of action by way of being financially and professionally destroyed ONLY for being at a certain place at a certain time where and when "police" suspect "criminal gang activity."

Lawmen find and catch individual criminals who commit criminal acts.

Soldiers go after an enemy distinguished by insignia.

There were ZERO lawmen at Waco. This was a military operation.

In point of FACT, the Waco police have already SAID they were there before the shooting started.

Officially -- in their facebook page, in an official release that is no longer available at the link where I originally found it thanks to don-o, who ALSO cut-and-pasted the entire text on FR. What you see below was cut-and-pasted from the Waco PD facebook page to Free Republic BY ME on June 16:

---------------------------

OFFICIAL Waco PD statement:

The "Twin Peaks" incident has resulted in an investigation that is unprecedented in the history of the Waco Police Department and McLennan County. Since the initial event, the investigation is a large and complex investigation, involving many entities. It is our intent to release regular updates, but the pace of developments is often beyond our control. We also do not want to release any information that would jeopardize the ongoing criminal investigation. We appreciate the outpouring of community support that we have received during the past weeks and we will continue to serve our community as we investigate this case.

The following is our most current update from the Twin Peaks Shooting Investigation that occurred on 5-17-15:

The number of officers initially assigned to the Twin Peaks event on 5-17-15 are as follows: There were 16 uniformed Waco Police Department Officers to include 5 Supervisors (3 Sergeants, 1 Commander and an Assistant Chief). Included in that number was a Tactical Element (SWAT Officers) assigned and present. None of the Officers were assigned in a sniper capacity and all Officers were in their vehicles at the time the suspects began the shooting. Those Officers were stationed in the parking lots adjacent to the Twin Peaks and were visible to patrons entering the Twin Peaks parking lot. There were 6 marked Waco Police units and 4 unmarked Waco Police vehicles. This does not include DPS vehicles. There were also Texas Department of Public Safety Officers assigned to the event as well.

As of this release, there are a total of 44 shell casings recovered from the Twin Peaks scene. This number does not include the revolver rounds fired by non-law enforcement shooters. Those casings are still being counted. 12 of those casings were from the rifles of 3 Waco Officers who discharged their weapons in defense of their selves or a third party. The Waco SWAT Officers’ weapons are .223 caliber rifles that are capable of full-auto fire; Officers only fired in semi-auto mode during the incident. There was no full-auto gunfire from any of the Officers at the scene. As is normal practice, rifles carried by the Waco SWAT Officers were deployed with sound suppressors. No other Officers fired rounds from any other weapon during the incident. The Officers involved in the shooting have been assigned administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation.

The number of weapons discovered during our search of the crime scene has increased since the first release and may continue to increase. The weapon count at this point in time is at least 475 weapons. This includes 151 firearms, 12 of which were long guns. The weapons recovered include: knives, brass knuckles, batons, tomahawks, weighted weapons, a hatchet, stun guns, bats, clubs, a machete, a pipe, an ax, pepper spray, and a chain. Many of these were hastily hidden and some were found using metal detectors as they were buried beneath the grass in the dirt. The involved firearms have been transferred to the ATF for analysis. Videos of the incident have been transferred to FBI Investigators for analysis. Full autopsy and ballistics analysis is being conducted by outside labs and the completed and final results have not been returned to us as of this release.

The special organizational structure of the Twin Peaks Investigation as it continues is this. There is a Commander assigned over the two Criminal Investigation Units (Special Crimes and SAFE-Support, Abatement, Forfeiture and Enforcement) investigating the cases that have developed from the shootings. There have been 4 additional Officers assigned to Special Crimes and 5 additional Officers assigned to SAFE to assist in the workload. This is in addition to the Detectives permanently assigned to those units. There are a total of 21 Officers and Supervisors assigned to the Twin Peaks Investigation.

Besides the addition of these Officers, we continue to receive support and investigation assistance from the following agencies; Texas Department of Public Safety including their Criminal Investigation Division and the Texas Rangers, Federal Bureau of Investigation-FBI, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms-ATF, Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission- TABC and the McLennan County District Attorney office.

We initially impounded 130 motorcycles and 91 other vehicles. As of June 10, 2015, 52 motorcycles and 47 vehicles have been released to the owners. In addition to those, 12 of the motorcycles and 3 of the other vehicles were released to the lien holders due to repossession.

At this point, we have recovered over 1000 pieces of evidence from the crime scene, the Convention Center (where suspects were initially detained) and the jail. Search warrants are still being issued in this case in reference to some of the property held as evidence.

There were 239 persons detained at the crime scene as result of the Twin Peaks shootings. At least 62 individuals were released from the crime scene or from the Convention Center without charges being filed. 177 persons were arrested that night or subsequently on warrants obtained by Detectives.

If I might chime in -- Fossil, the stats are available to anyone who wants to take the time to crunch the numbers -- you can see how long someone has been a FReeper from their home page, you can count the number of individual voices on a thread, as well as the number of posts each one contributes.

The crunched numbers show that proportionately, one poster -- the troll in question -- has an OVERWHELMING dominance on this thread in terms of number of posts.

I have found number-crunching critical to getting an ACCURATE picture of FReeper sentiment. THREE times now on three different issues, I have observed that while it appeared that "most FReepers" held a certain point of view, when the numbers were crunched, it was the opposite. Frequency of posts by the "side" that holds the minority view, makes it appear that the minority isn't as small as it in fact, is, and that the majority isn't as decided as it actually is. Many FReepers still labor under the wrong conclusion that "most" Freepers thought such-and-such because the posts of a small minority stating that such-and-such were so predominant.

On this issue of the Waco "shootout" charade, my number-crunching reveals that among FReepers who have commented clearly, the people who think the "official" narrative is bogus and wrong, MORE THAN DOUBLE those who buy the police narrative. However, when the latter dominate the threads in frequency of posts, even when we KNOW it is only a handful, it STILL creates the impression of size that is illusion. The trolls' purpose is to harm morale by trying to make the opposition at the very least sound smaller than it is.

well said. It can also discourage others from posting because they see how visciously others posting are attacked.

I've occasionally taken the time to go through and tally up posts on threads like these to see if my impressions of numbers are accurate, and I see similar results to what you describe.

Another common tactic is to constantly demand proof of claims, to cause folks to waste time looking stuff up, or to repeatedly attack small inconsiquential things and drag the conversation away from issues they don't want to discuss.

A few months ago someone posted an excellent article that analysed and described trollish behavior in some detail. I thought I'd bookmarked it, but I can't seem to find it.

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