“I remember it being a cold day,” said Robert Edler, a retired ATF agent. He's describing the morning of Feb. 28, 1993 near Waco, Texas. It's been nearly 25 years, and like most of the other agents, he's never spoken much about that day to outsiders.
“I recall stepping out of the truck, and almost immediately I started hearing pops,” said Elder. “You know, ‘Pop pop pop.'”
Elder was one of 76 special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) serving a search warrant for illegal weapons at the Mount Carmel Center. Mount Carmel was home to over 100 Branch Davidians, an apocalyptic religious sect led by David Koresh. They had amassed an arsenal, including AR-15s, AK-47s and grenades, for the "end times."
There were a large number of women and children inside Mount Carmel.
“Prior to the raid, a lot of us went to the store and bought candy, just as a way to appease the kids,” said ATF agent Gary Orchowski. “A lot of the agents that executed that search warrant that day did view it as a humanitarian mission.”
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