It was Koresh, he said, who ambushed the ATF agents during the initial February raid, killing four and wounding more than 20 others. As for the lack of emergency response once the fatal fire broke out 51 days later, Bradford said authorities made the legitimate decision not to send firefighters into a situation that might expose them to gunfire. The prosecutor also noted that opposing attorneys have backed off their earlier claims that federal authorities, in effect, killed the Davidians. After years of congressional hearings, investigations, documentaries and a criminal trial that led to the convictions of eight Davidians on gun charges, interest in the tragedy had largely died down by last year. Then came new disclosures and an acknowledgment from the Justice Department that, despite years of denials, FBI agents had fired pyrotechnic munitions at a bunker near the main compound just hours before the blaze started that final day.
Government officials insist that the pyrotechnics had nothing to do with the start of the fire.
But the acknowledgment that they were used gave new motivation to those who charge that Koresh and his followers were murdered.