Posted on 05/12/2012 6:25:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One of the darkest times in our region's history ended with the deaths of a U.S. Marshal, a 14-year-old boy and a mother.
In August 1992, a white separatist family in northern Idaho ended up in a days-long siege with federal agents that would ultimately end in bloodshed. | Read more about the siege from Tru TV
Now almost 20 years later, Sara Weaver, who lived through it as a teenager is sharing her memories of Ruby Ridge.
The devoutly religious Weaver family had come to Ruby Ridge prepared for the End Times and they were armed. Federal agents believed Randy Weaver was dangerous, so when they showed up with arrest warrants, they came prepared for trouble.
It went bad from the start. As shots started flying, marshals shot 14-year-old Sam Weaver in the back, and a marshal was shot dead.
The government brought in reinforcements setting up their barricade at the bridge, and Weaver supporters showed up in force.
On day two, an FBI sniper shot into the Weaver cabin, shooting Sara's mom Vicki Weaver in the face. She was holding her 10-month-old daughter Elisheda in her arms, with 16-year-old Sara just steps away.
"It was very hard. I felt very hopeless. Scared. Lost," Sara Weaver said in an interview with KXLY-TV in Spokane, Wash. "The most important thing to me had been ripped away."
Instant family caretaker
Eleven tense days later, it was over. Randy went to jail, charged with the murder of a federal agent.
Sara Weaver, 10-year-old Rachel, and baby Elisheba left their home and went to live with family in Iowa.
"I instantly became the caretaker of my family," she said. "I was in the mind frame that, if I'm taking care of everyone else, no one can tell me what to do. I was very rebellious, very angry."
Sara Weaver went through the motions, graduated from high school and moved back to the mountains she loved. She settled in Montana, got married, had a son. But the scars of Ruby Ridge remained.
"I was miserable all the time, just sad and depressed," she said. "I had never dealt with all the feelings and emotions that came from the trauma I experienced. I just stuffed them and ran away from them."
But then Sara Weaver found comfort in something she'd abandoned years before: a Bible verse, one she'd memorized all those years ago.
" 'For God so love the world he gave his only begotten son, So that whomever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.' That moment, I felt God's love pour out from heaven," she said. "I started bawling, I knew Jesus was real. That he loved me."
'Not the legacy I wanted to leave my son'
Sara's life changed completely. She had a new reason to live, and a new challenge before her.
"Three or four years ago, I Googled my name and what was tied to that was not the legacy I wanted to leave my son," she said.
Hate groups and anti-government conspiracy theorists like to invoke the Weaver name. When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he said he did it with the Weavers in mind.
"I didn't want my name tied to - to give anyone reason to act out in any kind of violence in my name," Sara Weaver said.
Sara says she's still a work in progress, still close to her family who live nearby. And dad Randy, now a grandfather and cleared of the most serious criminal charges, is a frequent babysitter.
Sara Weaver speaks publicly at churches and other organizations about her experience. Her book "From Ruby Ridge to Freedom" will be published this summer.
Nice. I needed to hear that tonight.
And the feds still haven’t learned a thing.
they learned they can get away with murder.
Maybe in this life.
Not in the next.
I wonder how Lon Horiuchi’s soul is these days.
Possibly clean and pure.
More likely, darker than a bat’s crotch at midnight.
No mention of the many atrocities committed by the federal agents or of the civil suit they lost.
Oh and the FBI sniper was the also at Waco. He was proclaimed a hero by Janet Reno.
Randy weaver isnt the best person but what the feds did to him and his family was murder.
Hell, Lon Horiuchi is probably going to be appointed the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the 2nd term of the 0bama regime, as Janet Incompetentano is probably viewed as “not aggressive enough”.
Dispicable.
"white separatists"...code for its ok for the gumint to go after you
no mention that the assassins shot the boy's dog first, which initiated the slaughter
that would ultimately end in bloodshed...gee, no mention that the feds started the whole thing when DEA/FBI/ATF (or some other 3 letter jackbooted thug federal agency) entrapped Randy Weaver.
No mention that the locals were protesting at the roadblocks the egregious behavior of the feds
No mention a local grand jury indicted federal agents for murder
No mention that Lon Horiuchi was the FBI assassin that murdered randy weaver's wife
No, just your typical stupid liberal urinalist puff piece which omits inconvenient facts.
The author is a coward and a fool.
I recall Diane Feinstein, very sympathetically of course, implying that Horiuchi really couldn’t see through those ‘calico curtains’ he shot through when he blew off Vicki’s head.
They've been known about for millenia ~ executioner is one of the jobs they give these guys.
I knew Lon Horiuchi and his father. This whole situation was extremely devastating to the father, his friends, family, associates and all the people who knew Lon Sr.
The federales should be prohibited from using sociopaths to serve as snipers for use against civilian targets. Violation of that rule should be punishable by death.
From a North Idaho resident that has read much about thsi incident, in addition to having read press accounts and TV news reports whilst this tragic incident was playing out, there was a heap of grossly misleading crammed into that article. Vicki Weaver, her son (abt 12) and her babe in arms were simply murdered, killed without cause.
That was the worst they had on Randy Weaver, and they make sure that every mention of his name has "white separatist" attached to it. I suspect that they are hoping that inattentive readers will remember it as "white supremacist", which, of course, would make it all ok.
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
He has no soul. I met her dad Randy Weaver and Sara at the Great Western Gun Show at the Los Angles County Fair Grounds, 10/31/98. They were selling Randy’s book “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge”. They both inscribed and signed the book for me. One of my proudest and valued possession. Everytime I read the book my blood boils. I recommend that all Freepers buy and read the book (available online at many places) I can’t wait to get a copy of Sara’s book -— signed!
if they had even apologized...
you know, they could have had Randy Weaver any day in town....what did they want him for...a rifle that had a too long barrel as I remember...
same with Waco...if they wanted him, they could have picked him up in Waco...no harm, no foul.....
They left out a big part of the story:
A chopper laden with a huge underslung fuel bladder came to a hover directly above the shack, clearly with the intent to burn them out.
They established that there was a reporter in the area with a powerful lens, and that stopped them (they beat up the reporter and put him in jail for nothing).
Ruby was also to be ended by the flame, similar to Waco.
In view of the monstrous truth of F&F, who is to say McVeigh was not a gov’t agent who was burned when the sting went bad?
Because that is clearly what they intended to do to all the dealers who were recruited to help the BATF with F&F.
Would the gov’t itself set into motion a chain of events that would blow up their OWN building...? I’d never have thought that b4, but in view of F&F now I think YES.
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