Timeline of the Waco siege:
The 1993 standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco played out over 51 tense days.
• Feb. 28, 1993: After a lengthy investigation, ATF agents conduct a midmorning raid on David Koresh’s compound. They come under immediate gunfire. By the end of the day, four ATF agents and six Davidians are dead. Koresh, the cult’s leader, is also wounded. As the FBI takes over the standoff, Koresh agrees to release two children every time KRLD, a Dallas radio station, plays a religious broadcast.
• March 1: The FBI takes over from the ATF. They cut phone lines, so Koresh can talk to only them. He threatens that if phones are not restored, the government will be responsible for the deaths of children still in the compound.
• March 2: A 57-minute message Koresh had recorded plays on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Though he had promised to surrender after it plays, he reneges. Federal agents had believed the standoff would end that day. About 110 people remain in the compound.
• March 5: Koresh tells negotiators he and his followers had been preparing for battle with authorities since 1985.
• March 7: Koresh refuses to send any more children out of the compound, telling negotiators, “You’re dealing with my biological children now.”
• March 9-10: FBI cuts off power to the compound, provoking Koresh. Agents try to persuade Judy Schneider, a follower, to leave the compound and receive treatment for an infected bullet wound. She refuses.
• March 12: Janet Reno is sworn in as U.S. attorney general at the White House.
• March 14: The FBI begins illuminating Mt.
Carmel with bright lights to disrupt sleep and improve security for hostage rescue operators.
• March 17: Wounded ATF agent John Risenhoover sues local news outlets, alleging journalists alerted the Davidians to ATF’s raid.
• March 21: Over the course of the day, seven Branch Davidians leave the compound. After they leave, FBI tanks crush the Davidians’ cars. They also play loud and disturbing music. Koresh tells negotiators: “Because of the loud music, nobody is coming out.”
• March 22: FBI first floats the idea of using tear gas to end the siege.
• March 23: Livingston Fagan, 34, leaves the compound, the last of 14 adults to do so. A federal prosecutor complains to Reno that the FBI is destroying evidence.
• March 28-29: Koresh speaks with his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, on March 28, and they meet on March 29, a controversial move opposed by many law enforcement officers.
• April 4: DeGuerin meets with Koresh for the last time and tells the FBI the compound’s inhabitants will surrender after observing Passover.
• April 10: Concertina wire is installed around the compound.
• April 14: Koresh tells his attorneys (by phone) he intends to surrender only after finishing a manuscript on the Seven Seals.
• April 17-18: Reno gives final approval to gas the compound and advises President Bill Clinton of her decision. The FBI clears the remaining cars in front of the compound, including Koresh’s Camaro.
• April 19: About 6 a.m., agents begin using tanks to plant canisters of tear gas inside the compound. About noon, fire erupts in three separate areas, setting off a conflagration that killed all but nine of the remaining Davidians.