I don't know if anyone else has been following this, but it was a big story here in Texas when the shootout occurred and the media has kept up with it since. A couple days ago Waco PD released some of the video and crime scene photos taken both inside the Twin Peaks restaurant and part of the parking lot. Plus a couple months ago attorneys for some of the bikers (the ones who weren't shooting) leaked some of the surveillance footage from the Don Carlos restaurant next door.
History of the Conflict :
The Cossacks and the Bandidos are '
at war' with each other and primarily it's about the right to wear a Texas bottom rocker patch on the back of their vests and jackets and about territory and respect.
The Bandidos have historically been the premier outlaw motorcycle club in Texas. So other clubs in Texas are not allowed to sport the Texas bottom rocker patch unless they pay the Bandidos monthly dues for the right to wear it or they face an assault or possibly even being stabbed, shot, beat in the head with something heavy or having their bike '
taxed'/jacked. Hells Angels do the same thing in California and that's what started their war with the Mongols
So the Cossacks motorcycle club paid the money to the Bandidos for the right to wear that patch for a number of years, but eventually they had sufficient numbers and formed an alliance with the Hells Angels and as a result they decided that they wouldn't pay anymore. Same thing with the Vaqueros, the Scimitars and several veteran and mom-n-pop clubs who just like to ride with no connection to any sort of criminal activity.
This led to a number of assaults, having Motorcycles stolen and a few murders
Second Bandidos suspect arrested in fatal bar shooting (*Click*)
Third suspect arrested in Fort Worth motorcycle bar shooting (*Click*)Heavy : Bandidos vs. Cossacks: A History of Their Deadly Feud (*Click for link*)
Bandidos members indicted in Abilene stabbing (*Click*)At any rate this conflict went on for a number of years, then on May 17th the Bandidos hosted a meeting at the Twin Peaks restaurant along with a number of other clubs to discuss both legislative issues that effect all riders as well as to supposedly hash out their differences with the Cossacks. The Cossacks say that they were invited to the meeting at Twin Peaks by the Bandidos to squash their differences and that they were essentially ambushed. The Bandidos say that the Cossacks were never invited, that they crashed the meeting and that they were there to start shit.
The Waco PD asked the Twin Peaks management to not host the event and to cancel it, but they refused. As a result Waco PD officers including their SWAT team staged at the location just in case something popped off, but on the far side of the parking lot.
According to the police basically what happened was...
• The Cossacks arrived at Twin Peaks early along with the other clubs and a whole bunch of unaffiliated bikers. They ordered beer and food, parked up front and sat in the patio area. This was apparently another source of conflict.
•The Bandidos arrived and immediately upon arrival one of the Bandidos hit one of the Cossacks with his motorcycle intentionally.
• A brawl broke out between the Bandidos on one side, the Cossacks, Scimitars and Vaqueros on the other and the unaffiliated bikers and even just some families who just stopped for some lunch with their kids and had the misfortune to be there were stuck in the middle.
• Fists and boots progressed to hammers, clubs and knives and then almost immediately to guns.
• 8 of the dead were Cossacks and 1 was a Bandido, so there's a good possibility that the Bandidos were the first to pull out their guns and get their hits in. Some of that could have been the police shooting them though.
• At one point in the shootout according to witnesses one of the Bandidos (he was wearing a cut with their back patch) hopped on the hood of a car with a long gun and fired through the windshield into an occupant.
• Another Bandido David Martinez, 45, pulled out a 32-caliber pistol, started shooting, and then hid the weapon in the back of someone else's car, police said. A search of his motorcycle later found a Glock 40-caliber handgun with a box of bullets.
• According to witnesses in the parking lot at least one Cossack was shot off his bike as he started it up in order to leave.
• Other bikers tried to use parked motorcycles as cover and were killed in place.
• Hearing the gunfire and seeing the brawl the Police Swat team went towards the restaurant. There's no sound in either video, but shorty after people start reacting to the gunfire you can see them make scene walking in between the cars.
• Waco police chief, Brent Stroman, said that three officers fired a total of 12 shots, but police have not said whether the bullets struck anyone, fatally or otherwise.
Twin Peaks biker shootout leaves 9 dead, 18 wounded and 177 arrested (*Click*)www.newsjs.com/url.php?p=http://www.gq.com/story/untold-story-texas-biker-gang-shoot-outabcnews.go.com/US/watch-leaked-videos-capture-waco-biker-shootout/story?id=34837478Knives, guns, blood and fear : Inside the Texas biker shootout (*Click*)
From the perspective of the families or the unaffiliated bikers who don't belong to a club trapped in the crossfire and who chose the wrong place to eat at what do you think would be their best course of action?
You're with your family at a local restaurant trying to get your grub on and watching your kid have at the place mat with some crayons when two groups of fuck-tards start shooting at each other. You have whatever EDC you normally carry, what do you do?
How about without a pistol/CHL?
I guess if I found myself in such a jacked up situation where the other guys were still outside shooting in I'd tell my wife to follow me, grab my son, crouch down and carry him to an area outside the immediate line of fire (the kitchen or managers office if there's one), stuff him in the safest spot in the room, shoot anyone who enters that room and represents a threat.
I dunno. Tough situation. Armed bikers who are outside in the parking lot are trying to shoot rival gang members inside the restaurant (which looked to be the case), I don't imagine that they're being too selective as to their target identification.
Trying to find a side exit to get your family out of there and going into the parking lot and heading for your vehicle might put your family in the middle of whatever is going on out there.
If you can find a position inside, secure that and let the seconds tick by to allow the police time to get there improves your situation and gradually makes it worse for both groups shooting at each other.
Thoughts?
