4 killed in Waco biker gang melee shot by 'same caliber rifle fired by police'
When a shootout erupted between rival biker gangs in a Waco, Texas, Twin Peaks restaurant last May, police responding to the scene used .233-caliber rifles — the only weapons actually fired by authorities that day. According to new evidence obtained by The Associated Press, four of the nine people killed in the chaos of the incident were struck by the same caliber rifles police used, raising questions of whether or not officers were responsible for any injuries or deaths.
"I think [the police] handled it badly. I think their first responsibility is to be a deterrent to crime, not to set up and hope they get to use their rifles," chapter president of the Cossacks gang John Wilson said. Wilson was at Twin Peaks when the fight broke out between the Cossacks and the Bandidos.
AP reports that two of the four dead only had wounds from .233-caliber rifles; the other two dead also had wounds from other kinds of weapons.
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In the aftermath of the Waco melee, police recovered over 430 weapons and arrested nearly 200 people. It is not immediately clear if any of the bikers also possessed .233-caliber rifles.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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