On March 1, 1992, The Spokesman-Review, a newspaper in nearby Spokane, Washington, reported that Weaver's children were armed and quoted area residents who predicted violence if law enforcement agents attempted to apprehend Weaver. Allan Jeppeson was quoted as saying, "They'll lose their lives if they go up there and threaten Weaver" and "he don't want nobody on his mountain."
On March 4, 1992, Marshals Cluff and Evans decided to drive up the mountain road leading to the Weaver cabin.[3] They were in plainclothes and rode in an unmarked four-wheel drive vehicle. As they proceeded up the mountain road, the marshals found that vehicle noise on the unmaintained road was clearly audible for great distances. Cluff and Evans then saw Randy Weaver, armed with a rifle, and a boy and a girl standing above them on a rock formation. The boy also had a rifle. A yellow dog ran up to the vehicle, barking. When Weaver told them they were trespassing, they responded that they were interested in buying property. Weaver told them to return with a realtor. The marshals left. Evans determined that additional reconnaissance was necessary. He had learned of previously unknown trails to the Weaver property and believed it was necessary to explore them.
On March 27, 1992, Deputy Director Stagg, who oversaw the Special Operations Group recommended against a tactical assault on the Weaver compound and his recommendation that the indictment be dismissed and then refiled later under seal, so Weaver would be unaware of the new indictment. This was in hope that it would cause Weaver to drop his guard. At the meeting, Haynes and Stagg presented a plan for an assault on the Weaver compound, but recommended against taking such action. Hudson agreed that a tactical approach did not appear viable because of their concern for the safety of Vicki Weaver and her children.
The Weaver case was transferred to the Enforcement Division and was given the name "Operation Northern Exposure." The primary responsibility for developing a plan was given to Deputy Marshal Arthur Roderick, Branch Chief of the Enforcement Division. Hidden cameras were installed throughout the Weaver property. Although final approval was needed from Acting Director Hudson, Roderick was given permission by Jim Roach, Deputy Director for Operations, in late May 1992, to begin preparations for an undercover operation to arrest Randy Weaver. The plan consisted of agents posing as a neighboring couple buying property next to the Weavers and befriending them.[3] Roderick chose Deputy Marshal Mark Jurgensen of the Seattle office for the undercover role. Roderick, Jurgensen, and Hunt started assembling documents necessary to carry out the operation.
Roderick was instructed not to put the undercover plan into effect while Acting Director Hudson's confirmation was pending before the U.S. Senate. In early August 1992, Hudson was confirmed Director of the Marshals Service and gave verbal approval of the undercover operation shortly thereafter. There had been no surveillance of the Weaver property since May, so Roderick thought it necessary for a team to visit the site and update their information.
[edit] The confrontation On August 21, 1992, several US Marshals were sent to conduct surveillance for the upcoming undercover operation.[3] Since Randy Weaver was a former Green Beret and it was believed the Weaver family were fully prepared to fight, an initial armed reconnaissance team was sent in to survey the location and prepare for the military style assault.[citation needed] They spent most of the night and early morning moving around the family property.[citation needed]
The group had strict orders that they were to avoid all contact with the Weaver family. According to a Department of Justice report on the incident, the Marshals were detected by the Weavers' dogs and began to retreat. Randy Weaver, his 14-year-old son Sammy[2] and his house guest, family friend Kevin Harris, left the house to investigate, all carrying firearms. The Department of Justice report corroborates this with a statement dictated by Randy Weaver to his daughter, in which he says that "Approximately 11:30 Friday morning....the dogs started barking like they always do when strangers walk up the driveway. Randy, Kevin, and Sam ran out to the rock with their weapons." The labrador, Striker, chased the marshals through the woods, and Sammy and Harris followed the dog. Eventually the marshals stopped retreating and took up defensive positions in the woods.
The sequence of events during the ensuing shootout is disputed, with Harris saying that the camouflaged Marshals did not identify themselves and were the first to fire at Sammy's dog, which was approaching their position with Sammy close behind him. Sammy then fired at Marshal Roderick, who had shot the dog. The marshals' version of events is that they were fired upon first and only then returned fire.[2]
According to Randy Weaver, after splitting up from Harris and Sammy Weaver, a man in full camo, leaped out in front of him and shouted: "Freeze Weaver!". Weaver responded to this with the words, "Fuck you!" and then turned around and began to run back to the house. As he ran he called out to Harris and Sammy that it was an ambush and to get back to the house. Randy said he heard Sam reply "I'm coming Dad" and then heard shots being fired.
Sammy and Harris had followed the dog through the woods when they confronted the Marshals. Sammy, according to Harris, then yelled "You shot Striker, you son of a bitch!", and fired twice at Marshal Roderick, the leader of the Special Operations Group. One or more Marshals returned fire, shooting Sam in the arm and spraying him in the back[2] with automatic weapon fire, killing him, as he ran back up the hill. Harris then shot and killed Marshal William Degan, and retreated up the hill himself where he found Sammy. It is also possible that Marshal Degan was killed by friendly fire as his autopsy showed he had been shot in the back with the bullet exiting through his chest.[citation needed]
According to evidence entered at the trial by prosecution witnesses (ballistics experts Martin Fackler and Lucien Haag), Art Roderick fired one shot, which killed the dog; Sammy Weaver fired three shots, to no effect; Marshal Bill Degan fired seven shots, one hitting Sammy Weaver's arm; Kevin Harris fired two shots, one killing Degan; and Larry Cooper fired six shots, one killing Sammy Weaver. Marshals Cooper and Roderick were not aware of Degan firing, and believed those shots came from the Weavers. There were nineteen shots fired in total.
The next day, the FBI was called onto the scene with their Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). After the first day's events, the FBI HRT changed its usual rules of engagement, stating specifically that "deadly force can and should be used against any armed adult male if the shot could be taken without a child being injured."[8] Deadly force could be used even before an announcement that the Weavers were surrounded and requesting their surrender. This was "unprecedented" and later found unconstitutional by a Justice Department task force.[3]
A FBI sniper, Lon Horiuchi, shot and wounded Weaver in the right arm, while he was lifting the latch on a shed to visit the dead body of Sammy Weaver with others.[3] Then as Randy, his 16-year-old daughter Sara[2] and Harris ran back to the house, Horiuchi fired again at Harris, but instead struck Vicki Weaver. Vicki Weaver was standing behind a door, unarmed and holding her 10-month-old baby Elishiba[2] in her arms, when the bullet struck her in the face, killing her.[1] The round then carried on, striking Harris in the left arm/chest.[3] A Justice Department review later found the second shot was unconstitutional and the lack of a request to surrender was "inexcusable", since Harris and the two Weavers were running for cover and could not pose an imminent threat. The task force also specifically blamed Horiuchi for firing at the door, not knowing whether someone was on the other side of it, along with those who had decided on the special rules of engagement allowing shots to be fired with no request for surrender.[3]
The sniper's two shots were fired at 6:00pm 22 Aug1992; the Weavers did not return fire but retreated to the cabin. At 6:30pm, an armored personnel carrier came to the cabin and announced the presence of law enforcement. According to the Weavers, this was the first formal announcement of the presence of law enforcement.
A stand-off ensued for 10 days as several hundred federal agents surrounded the house, in which Weaver and his three surviving children remained with Harris and the dead body of Vicki Weaver, under a blood-soaked blanket in the kitchen.[2] The area was surrounded by protesters angered by what they perceived as the heavy-handed nature of the authorities' actions. James "Bo" Gritz, then a third-party presidential candidate who had formerly been Weaver's commanding officer during his time in the Army served as a mediator between Weaver and the government. Eventually, Weaver elected to abandon the stand-off and trust his case to the judicial system.
Also, on August 22, 2006 Iran thought they were gonna bomb us and that the world was going to end, I believe
I would like to see some FReepers comment and dissect this event that had many lasting repercussions...
Have the bastards reponsible for this ever been brought to justice?
Who was AG at the time? Reno? And what of the Branch Davidians? 90 something murdered by our wonderful FBI .... I guess we’re really safer now, right?????
FWIW, BATFE has been known to edit Wikipedia articles (not sure who, but their IP addresses seem to be in the 149.101.1.xxx range and if it is a single individual they have DHCP and a LOT of free time at work).
Edits include, among many others, the NRA and Ann Coulter pages. But just in case you think there might be a closet conservative at the ATF, his comments in the talk section on the 2000 election (from IP address 149.101.1.118) include:
My version: The Court stopped the recount. It did not let it go on until everyone was satisfied. My side believes, therefore, that the five conservatives on the court ruled in favor of stopping the recount at a point when Bush was ahead, and that an enormous amount of evidence shows that had the recount been allowed to continue, Gore would have prevailed. Can I prove my opinion? No. Can you prove yours? Probably not. Anything wesite will be deemed unsatisfactory by the other due to bias, thus the original conflict. Therefore, why do we have a section on this topic that is far less than satisfactory to those who share my viewpoint? Because wikipedia is largely ridiculous when it comes to controversial topics
For somebody who believes Wikipedia is "largely ridiculous", he sure does seem to spend a lot of taxpayer time editing it (sorry, didn't mean to derail the subject but it seemed like an important point to make).
So who has Lon Horiuchi been murdering from afar these days? Or are he and “Jimmy the Tulip” still doing shots in Moab, Utah?
Should read “murders Vicki Weaver”.
Right........I look through the scope on my rifle all the time deer hunting and never see anything when I pull the trigger.
Didn’t Weaver and his surviving daughters get several million dollars from Uncle?