Nation IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Davidians Fired First in Raid, Reporter Says
A newspaper reporter who witnessed the government’s raid on the Branch Davidian compound testified in San Antonio that the first shots were fired by the cultists. Marc Masferrer, testifying at the murder trial of 11 cult members, said his editor at the Waco Tribune-Herald sent him to the compound Feb. 28, and that he saw the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrive. The issue of who shot first is critical to defendants’ claim of self-defense. The defendants claim they retaliated only after being fired upon by agents.
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