TEXAS, USA — Feb. 28, 2023 marks 30 years since the start of the deadly siege that took place at the Branch Davidian Compound in Mount Carmel just miles outside of Waco.
ATF agents were looking for Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh, who they believed was stockpiling weapons and ammunition. Moments later, gunfire erupted. Four federal agents were killed by the end of it, as well as six Branch Davidian members.
A historic standoff ensued and lasted for 51 days. By the end, 76 Branch Davidians, including men, women and children, died.
Koresh wasn't the first leader of the Branch Davidian group. Co-author of "Mad Man in Waco" and retired Baylor journalism professor, Robert Darden, says the group was liked before Koresh became their leader in 1990.
"They actually became fairly well accepted members of the Wakefield community, particularly during World War II," Darden said.
Originally named Vernon Howell, Koresh was a young drifter from Tyler. He moved to the Waco area to join the Branch Davidians in the early '80s.
When he took over the group, things quickly changed, Darden said.
"It becomes [Koresh's] personal playground," Darden said. "It's a playground that included a lot of military work, collecting guns and ammunition, one of which was illegal, and David's increasing sexual appetite for younger women."
People started to raise questions over the group after a local newspaper reported on the group with an investigative series.
"At about the same time they were interested in Branch Davidians, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) also got interested in them," Texas Christian University Historian Professor, Todd Kerstetter, said. "They might have been illegally modifying some guns to make automatic weapons, so the ATF had started an investigation and was in planning to serve search and arrest warrants."
Not many people expected the aftermath that followed.
"The ATF wanted some big splashy, thing where their heroic young officers came out with these grateful children on their shoulders," Darden said.
"The aftermath of this is the Waco event became a rallying point for people who are anti-government and thought that it had gone too far," Kerstetter said.
Darden says there's only one true group of heroes that came out of this story.
"The only real heroes of this story in that regard were the women from Child Protective Services who, at their own personal risk, continued to go out there to try to see and meet with the children and were met by armed guards and threats," Darden said. "They continued to go out, God bless them."
Darden says while each county isn't perfect, McLennan County's laws regarding child abuse is much better than how it used to be.
"Laws regarding child abuse and protection of children have strengthened so that there is nobody in McLennan County that could not listen to complaints from CPS," Darden said. "That has been a good outcome, a long range outcome."
ATF gathered at the Waco Peace Officer Memorial Tuesday morning to mark the anniversary. Members of the media were asked not to be there out of respect for the families of the fallen.