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Chief: 3 cops fired shots when Texas biker shooting erupted
Assoc. Press ^ | 06/12/2015

Posted on 06/12/2015 2:18:15 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd

WACO, Texas (AP) — Texas officers responding to a deadly melee outside a biker gathering in Waco had disabled their automatic rifles so the weapons couldn't fire more than one round per trigger pull, the city's police department said Friday, countering witnesses who said they heard what sounded like gunfire from automatic weapons.

Only three of the nearly two dozen officers outside the Twin Peaks restaurant fired their weapons, shooting a total of 12 bullets, after gunfire erupted following a dispute between two rival biker gangs, according to Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and statements released by his office. The officers were staged outside the restaurant on May 17, in anticipation of a large meeting of biker groups.

"We did not fire indiscriminately into the crowd. Our officers were restrained," Stroman said during a news conference Friday in Waco.

~snip~

Stroman said Friday that investigators collected 44 shell casings from the scene. Police also said that 151 firearms were among the hundreds of weapons recovered from the scene that included knives, brass knuckles, tomahawks, bats, a machete and a chain. Some weapons were stashed in between bags of flour in the restaurant's kitchen, while others were recovered with metal detectors, found buried under grass, police said.

(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: sgtpatrickswanton; sgtswanton; waco
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To: Responsibility2nd

The story implies the Chief is referring to the Twin Peaks PD.

Weren’t there other law enforcement agencies on the scene?


21 posted on 06/12/2015 2:51:33 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: All

From full statement - linked above -

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.


Those casings are still being counted. -

What can that possibly mean - still being counted.


22 posted on 06/12/2015 3:00:41 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: don-o

I took it as those spent casings are in guns sent away for analysis.


23 posted on 06/12/2015 3:02:13 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

I want to see forensics and diagrams. This whole thing didnt need to happen this way.

They were hoping for something big out of waiting in ambush and they got it. The decisions that killed some of these people was made long before anyone started shooting.


24 posted on 06/12/2015 3:02:53 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Patiently waiting for the jack booted kick at my door.)
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To: hadaclueonce

Behind one of the old toilets


25 posted on 06/12/2015 3:04:06 PM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: Delta 21

https://www.facebook.com/WacoPoliceDepartment/posts/828602650521626

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.


26 posted on 06/12/2015 3:04:59 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: don-o
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. 

link.

 

 

This sounds very cagey to me. Were these non-law enforcement shooters ATF, FBI, Texas Rangers? I would definitely call them law enforcement shooters. Otherwise he must be speaking of the bikers and their shells.

27 posted on 06/12/2015 3:05:48 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility)
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To: Bratch

Yes there was. Yet the chief is not commenting on if they fired.

Just his Waco PD.


28 posted on 06/12/2015 3:07:10 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility)
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To: Cboldt
I took it as those spent casings are in guns sent away for analysis.

That makes some sense. I wonder how and where they found 11 additional rifles?

29 posted on 06/12/2015 3:08:08 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever!)
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To: don-o
Good question. I would speculate most of them were in cars/trucks, but who knows how many were 'standard equipment' inside the restaurant.

I wonder if the full-auto, suppressed firearms used by Waco PD have brass catchers. I don't think that changes the count of brass, or number of shots claimed to be fired by the Waco PD, just curious.

30 posted on 06/12/2015 3:11:35 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: don-o

Union counters, in the private sector, counting to twelve doesn’t take most of us very long, but you know how unions are.


31 posted on 06/12/2015 3:27:54 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: Delta 21

Well, they guessed right. Can’t blame the cops for that. The shooters were pretty brazen starting this knowing the cops were there. Apparently just about everyone was armed. It could have been a lot.worse.


32 posted on 06/12/2015 3:29:25 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Responsibility2nd

A highly decorated Marine says different. He says he saw cops firing into a crowd of bikers and he heard assault rifles. I’ll believe the Marine over a cop any day.


33 posted on 06/12/2015 3:33:31 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Shooting for accuracy is necessarily an semi automatic, not full function. Where have the initial reports that all nine dead bikers were shot by police? This is getting strangely twisted.


34 posted on 06/12/2015 3:35:11 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: stylin_geek

Groups of cops have been known to fire more than a hundred rounds at one perp.


35 posted on 06/12/2015 3:35:50 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: Cboldt

By the way, that highly decorated Marine was a passenger in a pickup truck that arrived just as the shooting started. He spent 22 days in jail.


36 posted on 06/12/2015 3:37:19 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

“44 shell casings from the scene. Police also said that 151 firearms were among the hundreds of weapons recovered from the scene”

And three cops fired 4 shots each. Well well well.


37 posted on 06/12/2015 3:37:33 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

The report is all dress right dress and everything was correctly said.

They didnt really need ‘snipers” because anyone practiced up with an AR can shoot your eye out with it from across the street.

I doubt all the cops were out standing around in plain view as that would probly violate stakeout procedure. If the bikers lookout would have seen them I think they would have just left. But if a undercover cop was in there and his cover got blown there really was no other way it have went down.

Could have turned out a lot worse.


38 posted on 06/12/2015 3:47:20 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Patiently waiting for the jack booted kick at my door.)
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To: Bratch
Weren’t there other law enforcement agencies on the scene?

Good point.
39 posted on 06/12/2015 3:53:14 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media. #2ndAmendmentMatters)
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To: Responsibility2nd

“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”

So 44 casings recovered with no pistol rounds counted as of yet. Of the 44 12 are by the Waco PD. I hope I read that correctly. That would leave 32 rounds fired by other agencies.


40 posted on 06/12/2015 4:00:02 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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