Waco Siege

   In 1955, a religious group called "The Branch Davidians" followed the death of the Shepherd's founder, Victor Houteff. Victor Houteff founded this group based on his idea that there was an imminent apocalypse involving the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As the group gained more membership, they moved the church to a location close to Waco, Texas. In preparation for the "imminent apocalypse" the group was armed with hundreds of guns and weapons. The group's accumulation of firearms violated several federal laws and was suspicious in the eyes of the government, which later led to the Waco Raid.
   David Koresh was the American leader of the Branch sect, and he believed that he was the final prophet. He looked at himself as though he were a God, and wanted to be praised by his followers. As Koresh took the lead of this sect, he faced numerous allegations of child abuse and statutory rape by people surrounding him, and also declared himself married to several female residents of the small community. He declared that he had at least 120 wives and was the father to at least a dozen children. After many reports of abuse and rape, Koresh was also suspected of gathering illegal weapons. As stated earlier, The Branch Davidians were in genuine belief that there was an incoming apocalypse, and were doing everything in their power to prepare. This was exposed when a UPS driver noticed a package filled with firearms and grenade casings sitting on the porch of the Branch Davidian residence. This led to the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) to conducting an investigation on the group. The ATF began a close surveillance from the house across the street from the Branch residence, and soon gathered enough evidence to obtain a search warrant on suspicion that the Branch had illegal automatic weapons. On February 28, 1993, the ATF attempted to execute their search warrant, not knowing that Koresh had been tipped off and was expecting a raid to occur. ATF agents began to enter the house, but the Branch members began to open fire on the ATF. The ATF returned fire on the sect members and shots began to fire back and forth. Agents began to take cover and exchanged fire with the branch for nearly 45 minutes. After the raid was over, a total of 76 people died, including Koresh.