Aftermath of the massacre on May 17, 2015 at a Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco, Texas
The massacre was the deadliest and most high-profile event in the Waco area since the botched federal siege of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993. The bikers said the agenda at the regional meeting of the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents (COC&I), a statewide biker group coalition based in Tyler, involved political issues regarding the rights of motorcyclists.
READ MORE: WACO MASSACRE TIMELINE
According to several law enforcement agencies, trouble was brewing between the Bandidos MC and the Cossacks MC. It was reported that eighteen Waco police officers and four state troopers were there, monitoring the event from outside, when they alleged an altercation between two rivals led to a fight, then to open gunfire. When the gunfire finally ended, nine bikers were dead, most of them killed by the police, and 18 others were injured. No law enforcement officers or civilians were injured as a result of the gunfire.
Motorcycles seized after the Twin Peaks ambush on May 17, 2015
In the end, the event led to a five-year-long prosecutorial fiasco that ultimately resulted in not a single conviction, in spite of the fact that 177 bikers were arrested at the scene and 15 others were later charged, as well. The conflict began a little bit after noon, then Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.
Initial reports would suggest the conflict began over a parking spot where “someone had their foot run over”, Swanton would say at the time, and the brawl escalated from there. Then at precisely 12:24 p.m., the ambush began and gunfire erupted.
Lunchtime patrons crowded into Twin Peaks and other nearby restaurants began looking for cover, people were scurrying across parking lots, hiding behind cars, running as fast as they could from the gunfire. Police later would say it was amazing, miraculous no one was hurt.
Police snipers armed with rifles identified those bikers who were shooting in self defense and targeted them, which brought the gunfire to an abrupt end. Then officers, assisted by dozens of others who’d responded when the gunfire call was broadcast, began rounding up people and holding them, each one under arrest.
Not long after, busses were dispatched to transport those detained to the Waco Convention Center where police were trying to figure out who needed to be charged and with what. District Attorney Abel Reyna, soon took charge of the scene and instructed that each of 177 people would be charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and then Justice of the Peace Pete Peterson proceeded to set a $1 million bond on each defendant.
Peterson, at the time, said it sent a strong message: “We had nine people killed in our community. These people just came in, and most of them were from out of town. Very few of them were from in town.”
Those comments started a media storm that continued for months as those defendants began hiring lawyers who began filing motions for bond reductions and other legal documents that brought justice to a halt in the county while all those issues were resolved.
Finally, in November 2017, Christopher “Jake” Carrizal went to trial, the first of those arrested that day to do so, and just a few days later the judge in the case declared a mistrial in the case after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked and could not render a verdict. Jurors deliberated for 14 hours before returning their decision against Carrizal, who was then the president of the Bandidos’ Dallas chapter.
Barry Johnson replaced Reyna as District Attorney in 2019 and began looking into the Twin Peaks cases that remained, by April 2, 2019, all of the remaining criminal cases were dismissed. Two and a half weeks after the massacre, more than 140 of those arrested were still held, unable to post the $1 million bonds. Law school professor and civil rights lawyer David Kairys characterized the attitude of police as “Let’s arrest them all and sort it out later.”
Finally, in November 2017, Christopher “Jake” Carrizal went to trial, the first of those arrested that day to do so, and just a few days later the judge in the case declared a mistrial in the case after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked and could not render a verdict. Jurors deliberated for 14 hours before returning their decision against Carrizal, who was then the president of the Bandidos’ Dallas chapter.
Barry Johnson replaced Reyna as District Attorney in 2019 and began looking into the Twin Peaks cases that remained, by April 2, 2019, all of the remaining criminal cases were dismissed. Two and a half weeks after the massacre, more than 140 of those arrested were still held, unable to post the $1 million bonds. Law school professor and civil rights lawyer David Kairys characterized the attitude of police as “Let’s arrest them all and sort it out later.”
READ MORE: WACO MASSACRE TIMELINE