In 2015, the district attorney of McLennan County, where Waco is the largest city and county seat, was an ambitious 43-year-old named Abel Reyna. In April 2016, not quite a year after Twin Peaks, nearly 700 law-enforcement officers made a predawn raid in and around a Bronx housing project called Eastchester Gardens. The media and law enforcement made a big deal about all these weapons, Avery says. So Stroman called Reyna, who assured him there was probable cause for a mass arrest and that he could stand in front of a jury and prosecute everyone that we arrested. (Reyna disputes this portion of Stromans account.) Why Was No One Convicted? He shot a biker who had been firing a gun, following the man to the ground with his scope. W.H. He claimed the Cossacks had ambushed his crew, and he began crying when talking about his father, Chris Carrizal, who was known as Shovel, being shot that day. But this meeting was preceded by rumblings of an escalating feud between two of the states biggest outlaw motorcycle clubs, the Cossacks and the Bandidos. As police officers secured the scene, the bikers raised their hands in surrender or sprawled prone with their hands on their heads. The case made by the U.S. Justice Department in its successful 1988 prosecution of Ronald Hodge, Chamberss successor, suggested more of a top-down structure. Discovery Company. When the D.A. Videos posted online this week show new angles of the Twin Peaks shootout in Waco on May 17, 2015. Nine dead, 20 wounded. Another hearing on the motion to disqualify him was scheduled for February 2018. in Reynas office, Greg Davis, had left the job in protest. Im not convinced every Bandidos member commits crimes, Fuchs told me. It also raises an obvious thought experiment: Would gangs with different demographic make-ups have been easier to convict? Police say they responded within 30 to 45 seconds and were fired at by bikers. Police recovered a staggering 480 weapons from Twin Peaks: 151 guns, numerous knives, brass knuckles, chains, clubs, batons, hammers, tomahawks and a machete. But at the convention center, he was informed by a member of the district attorneys staff that a more appropriate charge would be engaging in organized criminal activity, defined by a Texas statute used to prosecute criminal gangs in this case, by linking all the bikers to a conspiracy with the intent to commit murder, capital murder or aggravated assault. The staff was already writing up a boilerplate arrest affidavit, which would be signed by the lead detective working that day, Manuel Chavez. Two men briefly pummeled him before running. Several members of his family worked in law enforcement in Houston, where his uncle, Raul Martinez, was the first Hispanic person to join the Police Department. CNN has obtained video and images of the chaos during and after the brawl. Jewelry lies on the asphalt in the Twin Peaks parking lot. Waco biker gangs shootout 22 photos. While the Twin Peaks incident contributed, one commissioner saysthe increase is really a reflection of the countys growth. A gunfight between members of rival biker gangs in the parking lot of the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, on 17 May 2015 left nine dead. I guess they didnt realize were a franchise store, the manager said. I remember I had a foldout pocketknife in my pocket. Army 2 tours Iraq; Convicted felon; Shot dog?; Did not see anything; Graduate Baylor University w/ English degree). Amid the chaos, he would later report, he saw a man calmly aiming a revolver as if preparing to execute someone on the ground. After her husband, an OB-GYN, died of a heart attack, she hired other doctors and continued to own and operate his clinic until a competitor reported her to local authorities for practicing medicine without a license. The same thing happened again: Reyna dismissed the cases. In May 2015, the bikers were gathering for a meeting of the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents, a coalition of motorcycle enthusiasts that lobbies the state government over things like helmet laws. Carrizal probably struck the prosecutors as both a high-value target and an easy win. Nearly three years after Twin Peaks, the local courthouses no longer seemed so congenial. Anyone can read what you share. More stories began to trickle out, like that of Patrick Harris. As soon as Reyna faced accusations of corruption and drug use, Looney says, it was in the nature of a chicken whos had its neck wrung. A Warner Bros. The Waco Biker Shootout Left Nine Dead. Police also recovered an ax, bats, batons, brass knuckles, a chain, clubs, a hatchet, knives, a machete, pepper spray, a pipe, stun guns, tomahawks and weighted weapons. I dont want to say anything that I shouldnt. And I was trying to get that pocketknife because I wanted to get them off me, and I never could. Tommy Witherspoon, who covered the trial for The Waco Tribune-Herald, told me that Carrizal was the most effective defendant Ive ever seen take the stand in his own defense, and Ive been doing this for 40 years.. But the way this organization operated had criminal activities intertwined throughout., In other states, Bandidos shared territory with other One Percenter outlaw clubs but Texas, their motherland, they had always claimed for themselves. Its still not, to this day. There were also members of unaffiliated clubs, like the Christian Motorcyclists Association, interdenominational evangelizers among the biker community. With Averys help, Looney would eventually persuade nearly 30 lawyers to take pro bono Twin Peaks cases. Since his arrest, he had risen from vice president to president of his chapter, and he had flagrantly violated the conditions of his bond by continuing to associate with club members. Avery likes to make Better Call Paul jokes. Initially, Reyna required attorneys for the accused bikers to sign what his office called agreed discovery orders that prohibited the release of the materials to the media or other third parties. Two patrons who were eating lunch at the Twin Peaks restaurant when the deadly May 17 shootout broke out have filed a lawsuit against Twin Pea. He had no criminal record and was carrying only a two-inch pocketknife at Twin Peaks. It included Jake Carrizal, the 33-year-old vice president of the chapter, a railroad engineer with copious tattoos and a long beard, the type of guy who wouldnt look entirely out of place selling artisanal sourdough at a farmers market. And within five minutes, according to Looney, we had an agreement for a $25,000 bond., Up in Dallas, Clint Broden, a lawyer who specialized in federal white-collar cases, received a call from his then wifes aunt, who knew one of the arrested bikers Clendennen, from the Scimitars, a 30-year-old with a wife, four children and his own landscaping business. Were not bouncing heads, he said. On May 20, the Associated Press viewed Twin Peaks surveillance video for a story but did not release any of the footage. When the family exited the restaurant, one of the Bandidos, parked in a vehicle about 30 yards away, fired a single shot from a hunting rifle that split his head open like a watermelon, Fuchs told me. Over 130 civil rights lawsuits are still pending against Reyna, the city and county and law-enforcement officers involved in the arrests. Prosecutions of Bandidos leadership would continue, but the organization expanded. So hes got a gunshot wound that you see is in his face and his eye, she noted, pausing at a particularly grisly image. McLennan County prosecutors subpoenaed the president of the Bandidos motorcycle gangs Austin chapter to appear before a new grand jury that w, Extensive media coverage about the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout has damaged the Twin Peaks name in general and has made it impossible to pick , Of the 177 bikers jailed after the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout, none remain in McLennan County jails and 135 of those were fitted with GPS ankl. Due to the known growing tension between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, the Waco Police Department coordinated a surveillance and intelligence-gathering operation for this meeting, according to documents from the Waco Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Web ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) October 29, 2015 Dramatic surveillance footage and crime-scene photos obtained by CNN show the deadly progression of a shootout The Texas Attorney Generals Office ruled for the city on Aug. 7, saying it could withhold the photos, video surveillance and 911 audio recordings, among other evidence, from the Tribune-Herald. After being transferred to the convention center, where he thought he would simply be giving a witness statement, Clendennen wound up spending more than two weeks in jail, unable to afford the $100,000 required for his $1 million bond. This violent encounter wasn't the first between the Cossacks and the Bandidos, according to a Waco PD investigator's sworn statement. She was the one who told Looney about the Waco brawl in the first place. How 177 arrests led to no convictions a tangled, seven-year tale of prosecutorial hubris and tenacious defense. Moments after the Bandidos arrived at Twin Peaks, a fistfight broke out, followed by gunfire, then utter havoc. They met in 2002, when Avery needed a lawyer herself. When a distant police siren sounded outside, Pierson smiled and said: Bandido Uber. Justice is individualized, he told me. Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune According to witness statements given to Waco Police by a Twin Peaks patron: "Just as we had finished eating I heard 5, 6, or 7 shots from outside of the restaurant. According to a Waco PD investigator's sworn statement, Waco police witnessed the violence erupt that day "swiftly" and law enforcement officers on the scene were fired upon by "individuals involved in the violent altercation" until officers were able to control the scene. They hadnt even put their names on the restaurant wait-list yet when the shooting started. WebVideo footage and crime scene photos of the Twin Peaks biker shootout in May that killed nine men and injured 20 others was released on Thursday. Several of those involved were arrested at the Waco brawl. He was, in Brodens view, a weekend-warrior type who just liked to ride, drink and hang out. CNN has obtained video and images of the chaos during and after the brawl. According to witness statements given to police, a Twin Peaks employee said that prior to the fight that led to the shooting, the Cossacks were attempting to keep their conversation private. More punches follow. Avery, who remembers herself being the instigator of the trip, worked her phone over the course of the three-hour drive, eventually making contact with the mother of a man named William English, who was arrested in the roundup along with his wife, Morgan. His first order of business was a reduction of their million-dollar bonds. An attorney for a Waco biker who was wounded in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout asked a judge to dismiss the indictment against his client Mond. 2023 Cable News Network. ". These are some of the bullets found on the scene by investigators. It was the largest gang takedown in New York City history, boasted Preet Bharara, at the time the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The body of a biker is seen in the parking lot. One Waco police officer described the aftermath as looking like something out of a video game. Bloodstained concrete. Rock music continued to blare, eerily, from the restaurants sound system. In the end, his primary wasnt even close: Johnson defeated him by nearly 20 points. Sixteen uniformed Waco Police Department officers, including members of their SWAT team, witnessed and responded to the melee from the parking lots surrounding Twin Peaks. Greg Abbotts office to help cove, The now-infamous Twin Peaks building at Central Texas Marketplace, the scene of a bloody shootout May 17 involving rival motorcycle gangs and , FORT WORTH When two rival motorcycle gangs clashed outside a Texas restaurant, nine bikers ended up dead, their bodies sprawled on the pavem, A visiting judge ruled Friday that Waco police had sufficient probable cause after the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout to arrest a Balch Springs bi, A bullet removed from the arm of a biker wounded May 17 at Twin Peaks and killed four months later in a traffic wreck will be analyzed by fede, WACO The secrecy that enshrouds the investigation into a biker shootout in May that left nine people dead and led to the mass-arrest of 177 , A McLennan County investigator has obtained a search warrant to extract a bullet from the arm of a biker killed last week in a wreck who w, A newly released report sheds light on which gangs may threaten the Greater Waco area and how law enforcement plans to assess those threats mo. 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