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Remnants of Branch Davidian raid head to national museum

The gear sat in storage for years, evidence from one of the most harrowing moments in law enforcement history, its fate uncertain.

The government waited more than two decades to return the bullet-mangled items to Eric Evers and Gary Orchowski, special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.


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"We're sending it to a place that's going to preserve history," said Orchowski, now assistant special agent in charge of the Houston field division. "It's an opportunity for people to learn."

Evers' mud-and-blood stained Kevlar vest stopped three of five bullets that hit him that day. Orchowski's helmet stopped a bullet meant for him. Another slug mangled the radio he'd worn on his back. They were almost destroyed when the government closed its case on the incident.

The agents were among dozens who participated in the raid of David Koresh's compound. It was the deadliest day in the history of the agency. Four ATF agents died: Steven D. Willis, from the Houston field office, and three New Orleans-based agents: Conway C. LeBleu, Todd W. McKeehan, and Robert J. Williams. Their names are inscribed at a memorial in northwest Washington, D.C., across the street from the site of the new museum.

Became a lightning rod

Museum officials said the items will be available for the public to view by appointment and will likely be featured in a rotating gallery.

"That was such an important story, in the broader history of law enforcement," said Sarah Haggerty, a curator at the museum. "What an incredible way to tell that story. You look at them and right away get a sense of what they were going through and what was going on."

The ATF had been sent to the Mt. Carmel compound after learning Koresh and his followers were stockpiling illegal weapons and that Koresh was suspected of having sex with his followers' underage children.

After the raid, in which six cult members also died, the Federal Bureau of Investigations laid siege to the compound, starting a seven-week stand-off. It ended in fiery disaster on April 19, 1993, when cult members set fires as the government stormed in. More than 70 cult members, including some children, died in the flames.

The raid and siege became a lightning rod for controversy over religious liberty, personal freedom and federal overreach, sparking massive criticisms of the federal government's handling of the incident. That criticism - and actions by their bosses to try to cover up the breakdowns - still frustrate Evers and Orchowski.

Donating their gear is a way to make sure their story isn't forgotten, they said.

"A lot of this was propaganda," said Evers, 52, who now works as an arson investigator with the agency. "We most certainly would not have gotten a federal search warrant if there hadn't been probable cause. … Did we make mistakes? Yeah."

ATF had been one of the most well-versed of the federal agencies in executing search warrants - performing hundreds of raids without any serious injuries or loss of life, Evers recalled.

But the day of the raid, Koresh and his followers learned ahead of time that agents were on their way. ATF leaders, however, decided to press on with the raid only to find themselves massively outgunned by Koresh's followers.

Hard lesson learned

The results sent shock waves throughout the agency, recalled Mike Bouchard, a former agent who now serves as the president of the ATF Association, which supports current and retired agents.

"You didn't see people attacking law enforcement like that," said Bouchard, who had been visiting his parents in New England when he received news of the raid. "The firepower they had was just amazing. … I'd never (heard) of that much firepower in the hands of criminals before."

After the raid, the agency overhauled operations to better focus on safety.

"ATF became a much safer place to work, for agents," Bouchard said. "It was a hard lesson learned, but like most tragedies, you take something from it, make good from it. We certainly did that."

As he gathered up his gear one last time, Orchowski still chafes at the way the his colleagues were portrayed, over how they were made to look as if they were the aggressors. He traced the pockmarks in his helmet before loading it into the large cardboard box.

"The Branch Davidians did inflict harm on us," he said. "They did kill us, they did try to kill us, and these are artifacts of that.

"The bottom line is, we were right and that's never been accepted," he said. "That's never been validated - that we were there righteously, that there was probable cause for the search warrant, and they were predisposed to commit murder."