170 arrested after bloodbath at Texas restaurant

WACO, Texas – About 170 people have been arrested on suspicion of engaging in organized crime following a Sunday bloodbath at a Waco, Texas, restaurant involving rival biker gang members that left nine dead and at least 18 wounded in a shootout involving police, authorities said.

The shootings are being investigated as capital murder due to the number of people killed, said Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton. No one has been charged with murder yet.

The bikers were “not here to drink beer and eat barbecue,” Swanton said. “They came with violence in mind.”

“This is Anytown, USA. This can happen in any town across the USA,” Swanton said at a midday briefing at the shopping center that turned into a bloody arena when members from five motorcycle gangs fought with knives, clubs and guns.

“Unfortunately, they chose a Sunday in Waco, Texas,” he said.

On Monday, police worked the scene, collecting evidence and diagramming the scene. Every bullet casing and every blood spot will be mapped and examined. More than 100 motorcycles and 50 to 75 other vehicles were expected to be inspected and held as evidence in the far-reaching investigation that will likely take time to sort out. Swanton and others who saw the inside of the restaurant said it is littered with shell casings and pools of blood.

Among the unanswered questions is who fired the fatal shots that killed nine. Along with the bikers, police also fired when the melee erupted inside the Twin Peaks restaurant and spilled onto an outdoor patio and then the parking lot.

Police have been highly critical of the restaurant and its decision to allow the bikers to gather despite intelligence reports that the motorcycle gangs, including the Bandidos and Cossacks, represented a danger. Swanton said the groups were apparently meeting to discuss turf and recruiting issues.

A lawyer and a biker leader disputed the police presentation, saying the event was a publicly scheduled meeting of the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents, a grass-roots gathering to discuss legislative and safety issues that has taken place regularly across the state for years without any violence, the men say.

Steve Cook, a Kansas City-area police officer with the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Investigators Association who has worked undercover in the Hermanos gang affiliated with the Bandidos, said Sunday’s shooting was no surprise.

“Most states have a confederation of clubs,” Cook explained. “What it really is is something that’s run by the dominant bike gang in whatever state they have it in, which in Texas would be the Bandidos.

“It’s not really something you have an option on. If you want to be a recognized club, you have to belong to the COC and pay dues.”

Motorcycle gang members wear vests with top and bottom patches or “rockers” indicating their membership and location, which become an issue in turf wars.

“The Cossacks have been trying to become a little more independent,” Cook said. Instead of wearing patches showing their city and county, they “recently started wearing Texas bottom rockers – well, that’s a direct challenge to the Bandidos which claim Texas as a territory.”