Ceremony held on 3rd anniversary of Waco disaster
April 19, 1996
Web posted at:1:10 p.m. EDTWACO, Texas (CNN)-- It started when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms failed in their attempt to arrest cult leader David Koresh on weapons charges. A gun battle that resulted left four federal agents and six members of the Branch Davidian cult dead. After 51 days of a standoff between the cult members and law enforcement officials, the authorities stopped waiting.
On April 19, 1993, they began knocking down the buildings which housed the cult members. CNN carried the pictures live as a blaze consumed the building, killing nearly 80 cult members, including Koresh and 18 children.
Clive Doyle escaped from the compound's chapel minutes before it burned to the ground, but his 18-year-old daughter, Shari, died in the inferno.
He was among about 50 people who attended a ceremony Friday to commemorate the third anniversary of the fire.
"We do not want to worship those who died, but we do want to remember them," Doyle told the crowd. "All those who died were members of one family."
Among those who have made pilgrimages to Waco, according to the government, is Timothy McVeigh, charged with bombing the Oklahoma City federal building on the second anniversary of the fire.
The disaster has also been the subject of congressional hearings and has led to reforms in law enforcement agencies. Still, Attorney General Janet Reno has insisted Koresh was to blame.
"The fate of the Branch Davidians was in David Koresh's hands, and he chose death for the men and women who had entrusted their lives to him," Reno told Congress last summer. "And he, David Koresh, chose death for the innocent children of Waco."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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