Officials warned weeks ago a biker ‘war’ was imminent
WACO, Texas — Texas authorities had warned earlier in May there was growing animosity between the motorcycle gangs most involved in the weekend massacre here.
The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Joint Information Center issued a bulletin May 1 that cautioned authorities about increasing violence between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, Dallas TV station WFAA reported Monday. The county sheriff has said all nine people who were killed Sunday were part of those two groups.
The shootout at a Twin Peaks restaurant left 18 injured. About 170 have been charged.
The bulletin, obtained by WFAA, said the tension could stem from Cossacks refusing to pay Bandidos dues for operating in Texas and for wearing a patch that claimed Texas as their turf without the Bandidos’ approval.
“Traditionally, the Bandidos have been the dominant motorcycle club in Texas, and no other club is allowed to wear the Texas bar without their consent,” the bulletin said, according to WFAA.
The bulletin said the FBI had received information that Bandidos had discussed “going to war with Cossacks.” It also outlined several recent incidents between the two groups, including one instance in March when about 10 Cossacks forced a Bandido to pullover along Interstate 35 near Waco and attacked him with “chains, batons and metal pipes before stealing his motorcycle,” WFAA reported.
That same day, a group of Bandidos confronted a Cossack member fuelling up at a truck stop west of Fort Worth, the bulletin said. When the Cossack member refused to remove the Texas patch from his vest, the Bandidos hit him in the head with a hammer and stole it.
Last March, two members of the Bandidos were indicted in connection with the stabbing of two Cossacks at an Abilene steak house in March 2014.
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said the nine dead were members of the Bandidos and Cossacks. However, Waco police spokesman Sgt. Patrick Swanton has repeatedly declined to identify which gangs were involved.
Five gangs from across Texas had gathered at Twin Peaks to, in part, settle differences over turf, Swanton has said.