Prosecutors are expected to begin calling agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who faced a massive firefight during the Feb. 28 raid on the Branch Davidian compound. Four ATF agents died and 20 were wounded during the battle, in which at least six Branch Davidians also were believed killed. After a 51-day standoff with federal agents, the compound was destroyed April 19 by a fire that left sect leader David Koresh and more than 80 of his followers dead. The fire erupted hours after FBI agents began bashing the compound with tanks and inserting tear gas in an effort to force a surrender. The 11 sect survivors on trial are charged with conspiring to murder the agents, and some face additional weapons charges of possessing or making the machine guns, grenades and other weapons found at the compound.
Federal law prohibits ownership of grenades, machine guns and silencers without federal licensing.
Asked to explain the use of armor-piercing rounds, Agent Cadigan said the bullets are capable of penetrating armored vehicles and then exploding in a fiery blast to burn or maim anything inside. He acknowledged under cross-examination, however, that FBI officials did not test any of the automatic weapons recovered from the compound to see whether they had been fired. Bullet slugs recovered from wounded and dead agents could not be compared to the weapons because most were too badly damaged for analysis, he said. He also acknowledged that there was no way to tell whether automatic weapons fire caused the bullet holes found in cars outside the compound that ATF agents used as shields during the firefight. While displaying photographs of a truck that carried federal agents to the compound for the Feb. 28 raid, he suggested that the vehicle could have been hit by shots from a nearby ATF undercover house.