New Information in the Waco Biker Case Shows 4 Died From Police Bullets

“They’ve harmed themselves from keeping this secret so long.”

By Rhonda FanningDecember 15, 2015 12:20 pm,

May’s deadly biker shootout in Waco reportedly left nine dead, many others wounded and more than 170 arrested. Since the shootout, there’s been an ongoing legal battle.

Until recently, there’s been precious little to say further about this incident, with a few exceptions. A gag order has made the police version of events the only real version we’ve had to discuss. But thanks to thousands of pages of once court-protected documents leaked to the media, we now have new clues to what actually happened that day.

Newly obtained evidence by the Associated Press reveals that four of the nine people killed during the altercation between rival biker gangs outside the Twin Peaks restaurant were shot by the same caliber of rifle fired by Waco police. A ballistics report matches bullets taken out of the victims’ bodies with rifles being fired by SWAT officers that day.

Now, a video released over the weekend shows the likely parking lot confrontation leading up to mass shooting.

Dane Schiller, reporter for the Houston Chronicle, has the latest on the case. He says the video does seem to support the Waco police department’s claim that the embroilment and gun fight started between the Cossacks and Bandidos, two rival biker groups.

“What’s come into question,” Schiller says, “Is what was being done before that and what was done immediately after.”

Schiller says that according to the recently unsealed indictments, there was a 10th victim from the shootout, even though the police and the media have been reporting only nine.

“We’re all trying to figure out who is this 10th person,” Schiller says.

The report says a man by the name of William Anderson died along with the other nine victims. That’s a strange twist to the information, Schiller says.

“Nobody by that name has died in McLennan County from the date of that shooting to present,” Schiller says. “Someone who was a member of the Bandidos who died in another state in a motorcycle accident and hit a deer – his last name matches the name of that 10th dead person. His father, who’s long been deceased, matches that name entirely.”

Schiller says media is scratching their head asking for clarification on the matter.

So far in the investigations, Schiller says there’s no evidence of any police wrongdoing, but the gag order didn’t make them look so good. In other instances of police shootings, Schiller says, police came out with the facts quickly. They showed video tape. Then, the investigations moved on from there.

“The biggest mistake that [Waco] police have made, in my opinion, is they haven’t come clean in a timely manner,” Schiller says. “But they’ve harmed themselves from keeping this secret so long.”

Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.