Biker Club Chaos in Waco

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minute murder. On Sunday, the seventeenth

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of May twenty fifteen, hundreds of
bikers were attending a meeting at the Twin

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Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas.
Most of the bikers and attendants were from

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two rival gangs, the Cossacks and
the Bandidos. They'd come together for a

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common cause routine meeting between the gangs
to discuss bikers' rights in a neutral space.

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The Cossacks had arrived early, wanting
to present a strong front to the

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Bandidos. By the time the rival
gang arrived, they were greeted by the

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sight of the Cossacks sitting in the
restaurant's patio area waiting for them. Peace

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between the two groups did not last
long. It began as an argument over

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parking, which grew more and more
heated as Bandido bikers supposedly used bikes to

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deliberately run over a Cossacks foot.
Within minutes, several of the members had

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drawn their weapons and multiple shots were
fired. Reginald Weathers, a member of

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the Bandidos, might have been the
first person to be shot, but because

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he had been punched by a Cossack
shortly before the shot was fired. He

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was bent over and never saw who
was holding the gun. CCTV footage of

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the shooting was later leaked online,
showing the other customers and waitstaff running from

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the gunfire while hundreds of bikers drew
their weapons. Richard Luther, a member

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of the Cossack gang at the time, talked about the chaos later quote I

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curled up in the fetal position with
three other people, he said. I

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looked up and saw another biker Ritchie
hit the ground, saw him bleeding from

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the head. Started seeing people dying
and falling all around me. We decided

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we needed to move, so we
crawled military style on our stomachs up the

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patio stairs, through the patio,
and into the restaurant until the police came.

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Really, at that point I didn't
know who was shooting. The local

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police had been aware of the meeting
and they were waiting nearby in case a

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fight broke out between the two gangs. Within minutes of the first shot being

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fired, police were on the scene. Although most of the forensic evidence in

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the shooting has not been released to
the public, Allegedly, several of the

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bikers shot that day were shot with
a two two three caliber rifle, the

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firearm used by the Waco police.
According to the police who responded that day,

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the force that they used was necessary
to quickly control the scene and prevent

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more people from losing their lives.
After only a few minutes of shooting,

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nine people had already sustained fatal injuries
and many more were seriously hurt. The

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officers detained so many bikers that the
local police station was too small for processing

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the suspects. All one hundred seventy
seven bikers were driven to Waco's Convention Center

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and accused of the same crime,
engaging in organized criminal activity that was a

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serious charge with a potential for a
life sentence if they were convicted. Their

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bonds were set at one million dollars
each, a fee that most of the

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suspects could not afford. The Justice
of the Peace, who set the bonds,

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justified the high fee, saying,
I think it's important to send a

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message. The Twin Peaks restaurants,
where the shooting had taken place, was

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criticized for allowing such a large group
of bikers to meet there, and shortly

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after the chain announced that the Waco
restaurant's franchise was being canceled. They gave

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the reason that the restaurant's management had
ignored police warnings about the bikers and that

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they'd failed to uphold security standards designed
to keep everyone in the restaurant safe in

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the shootings. Aftermath, the police
discovered what they believed was overwhelming evidence that

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most of the bikers had been prepared
for violence that day. They might not

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have known how the fight would start, but they made sure that they would

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be able to defend themselves when it
happened. At the scene, more than

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two hundred weapons were recovered firearms,
brass knuckles, knives, baseball bats,

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and chains. While waiting in jail
for their bonds to be lowered, the

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bikers were unable to support their families
after they got out. Many of them

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lost the jobs that they previously held
before going in or watched their marriage crumble.

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Quote. When I got out of
jail, cossack like a Richard Luther

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said, I called the owner of
the roofing company that I worked for.

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He said, can't have gang members
working for me. I couldn't do anything.

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Nobody wanted us around. Out of
all one hundred and seventeen suspects,

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only one of them ended up needing
to appear in court Jake Karazov, who

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was a chapter president for the Bandidos. It was an emotional trial. One

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of the officers who had responded to
the scene began to cry uncontrollably on the

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stand as he relived memories of the
crime scene, saying it wasn't supposed to

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go like that, It just looked
like a horror movie. After six weeks,

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the jury was not able to agree
on a verdict, and in November

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twenty seventeen, Jake Karazov's trial was
ruled as a mistrial. One of the

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key issues with actually convicting any of
the suspects was the level of chaos that

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had unfolded during the shooting. Even
the people who were witnesses that day said

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they had no idea how it started. One moment things were relatively calm,

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and the next moment, the restaurant
was a scene of mass murder. Since

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very shortly after the shooting, the
police's response has been controversial. Many of

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the bikers argued that the police officers
just arrested anyone who was at the scene,

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including people who had not drawn a
weapon and were simply trying to flee

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from the shooters. The bikers believed
that the police created an unfair narrative placing

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all of the gang members as being
murderous criminals who had intended on doing harm

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that day. As a result of
the Waco shootout, more than one hundred

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lawsuits were brought forth against Waco law
enforcement. Of the bikers who chose to

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file a civil rights lawsuit was Diego
Obledeaux, one of the men who insisted

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that he had not contributed to the
violence. Allegedly, Diego didn't even have

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a weapon with him that day,
but he was arrested still for engaging in

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organized criminal activity. In fact,
according to the lawsuit, Diego had not

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been a member of either of the
main gangs involved in the shooting. He

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was a member of the Christian Motorcycle
Association. When he was arrested, he

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had been carrying a small bible in
the pocket of his vest. When the

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new mc lennan County District Attorney,
Barry Johnson took office in twenty nineteen,

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he made an announcement. Out of
the one hundred seventy seven men arrested,

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one hundred fifty five had been indicted. He decided to drop the charges against

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the remaining twenty four suspects, because, in his opinion, it was useless

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to push it any further. Kharazav's
trial had racked up around one point five

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million dollars in legal costs, and
ultimately it had been pointless. Attorney Johnson

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was open to the possibility of charging
some of the bikers for murder if they

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uncovered any new evidence, but at
the moment he didn't think the prosecution had

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a chance of winning. He thought
that earlier in the case there might have

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been opportunities to convict some of the
bikers of other charges like unlawful weapon possession,

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attempted murder, and assault, but
now the statute of limitations on some

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of those crimes has expired. For
many of the bikers who had been arrested

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during the shootouts, the news was
a relief. Quote for us that our

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living it is vindication. It's like
the weight of the world has been lifted

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off our shoulders, said Richard Luther, who had already begun the process of

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suing Waco law enforcement. According to
Richard, being arrested in the shootouts had

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cost him more than just his time. He'd paid more than forty thousand dollars

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in legal fees and therapy for post
traumatic stress disorder. Clint Broden, who

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represented several of the bikers in their
lawsuits, agreed that the real perpetrators could

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have been prosecuted if the investigation had
been more thorough. In the United States,

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he said, we investigate first and
then we charge. We don't charge

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first and then investigate. This was
done completely asked backwards. If the original

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district attorney, Abel Raina just charged
those who were criminally responsible, I think

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we would have had some prime insecutions
and likely convictions. But because he made

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such a mess of it, this
is the end result. The Waco Tribune

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Herald described the shootout as leading to
a four year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in

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zero convictions. Everyone who was there
that day has a slightly different story of

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what happened, and eight years later, the identity of the person who fired

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the first shot is still unknown.
That's ten Minute Murder for today, brief

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and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe
the host, and thank you so much

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target quick listener email question before we go

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Joe in person, are you a
talker or are you quiet? That's from

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Stacy in Hanover and Stacy, I
can tell you that I'm both. There

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are times if I know you really
well, I'll talk. I'll talk a

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lot. But also if I know
you really well, I might not say

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very much at all. It's because
I don't just talk for no reason.

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I'm weird like that. If I
don't have anything to say, I don't

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just start talking and just to fill
the silence. I'm cool with silence.

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I'm cool with sitting there and not
saying anything, and I don't think anything

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about it. I don't think,
well, this is awkward. It's just

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silence. I'm good with it.
And I'm also good with you not knowing

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what I'm thinking all the time.
I don't feel like I need to express

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what's on my brain all the time
because there's chaos in there in my brain.

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Sometimes there's just pure chaos. So
I don't always like to verbalize that.

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And the people that do, I
mean, that's your thing, that's

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cool, do what you want to
do. But that's not what I do.

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So it's a yes and no question, but by default, if I

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don't really know you that well,
I'm pretty quiet. All right, that's

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going to do it. That is
your episode for today. Thank you so

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much for listening to ten minute Murder