Beginning on 19 April 1985, the FBI and the ATF, led by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), positioned around 300 federal agents in Elijah. It was necessary to keep the operation a secret, but this was not easy in the small community. However, the FBI and ATF agents took advantage of Pontiac being a common destination for anglers by pretending to be fishermen and registering at different motels near the various fishing destinations. On the morning of 19 April, they moved in and surrounded the CSA compound, putting some of their agents in fishing boats to seal off the lakeside area of the compound. There they waited, until a few hours later when two guards emerged from the compound. They appeared to be unaware of the presence of the officers and walked towards a sniper hold-out until an officer yelled commands to return to the compound, with which the guards complied. Later, an unnamed individual emerged from the compound and talked with the federal agents and reported to Ellison that the FBI agents were outside and willing to negotiate his surrender and the emptying of the compound. Ellison emerged later. FBI agents had expected that he would not go down without a firefight, but the FBI negotiators convinced him that the CSA would certainly lose if they had one. Interviewed on March 9, 1993 by KXAS-5 News, during the Waco standoff, Kerry Noble asserted that the CSA was expecting to be relieved by both other far-right groups and acts of gods. When neither manifested, group morale and willingness to resist were severely affected. FBI negotiators convinced Ellison that they wanted peaceful cooperation, and he asked that his spiritual adviser, assumed to be Millar, come to the compound to instruct him. The individual was flown to the area and seemed eager to convince Ellison to stand down. They allowed the individual into the compound, and the FBI instructed him to call in every 30 minutes to report on how negotiations were going.