Leader David Koresh and more than 80 followers died in the blaze, which began about six hours after FBI tanks began ramming and tear-gassing the compound. Four ATF agents and several sect members died in the exchange. Government officials have long maintained that FBI agents used no pyrotechnic devices on the day the compound burned. But last month, the Justice Department and the FBI admitted that tear-gas grenades capable of starting fires had been fired by the government on April 19, in direct violation of an order by Attorney General Janet Reno that no pyrotechnic devices be used that day. The FBI now says the pyrotechnics were fired at the compound, but hours before the blaze started.
Officials still maintain that the fire was set by the compound's occupants.
Even before then, the Rangers had been working for several months to try to identify a shell casing that proved to be part of one of the military CS gas rounds and other projectiles that had never been properly identified. Mr. Francis ordered the inquiry after learning that the Justice Department had tried to block all public access to the evidence trove. The issue came to his attention after Justice Department lawyers defending a massive wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Branch Davidians angrily complained about an independent filmmaker being allowed to view the evidence in DPS custody last fall and this spring. By mid-August, Ranger Sgt. Gordon had identified the shell casing as part of a U.S. military gas grenade known as an M651.