“The feds are preparing to kill them. That way they can bury there mistakes.”
Vic Feazell, Prosecutor Mcellen county 

“Steve, David, individuals inside the Branch Davidian compound. We are in the process of placing tear gas into the building. This is not an assault, this is not an assault.”
 FBI, 6am April 19, 1993

“Anytime you start the day by gassing women and children, you have to expect it to end badly.”
Westly Prudin, Washington Times columnist 

“Everybody grab your gas masks! Everybody grab your masks!” 
Steve Schneider died 4/19/93

“You had a bunch of women, children, elderly people. They were all good people. They had different beliefs then others. Different beliefs then I have, maybe different beliefs then you have in there way of life and especially in there religious beliefs. But basically they were good people.”
Jack Harwell Sheriff McLennan County

“Boot camp trainees are briefly exposed to a mild amount of CS for a few seconds. The Dravidian's received more then ten times that dosage for more then six hours.”
Waco: Rules of Engagement 

“I believe using C.S. gas against infants, against old people with respiratory problems. There were sixty, seventy year old men in there and there, and there were young children. That’s torture and I can just see those kids barfing, vomiting, screaming because you can’t possibly have a gas mask that will fit a little kid!”
Jack Zimmerman

“There would be coughing, choking. They’d probably be unconscious… ah, some would probably be dead, some would be basically inert. They may still be alive, they may still be breathing but there not going to be doing anything.”
Eric R Larson Ret Dow Fire Propagation and chemical anesthesiologist specialist 

“The gas supplies a number of irritants to the nostrils, to the eyes, to the skin. Just touching it to the skin can be extremely painful. You can have certain symptoms of nausea, you can have symptoms of inflammation in regards to the membranes. So it’s extremely uncomfortable.”
Waco: Rules of Engagement 

“We put massive gas in there. Their gas masks at that time had to be failing.”
 FBI Spokesman 

“By noon Mt Carmel was a tinderbox. A heavy layer of C.S. dust covered everything inside.”
Waco:  Rules of Engagement 

“We believed this thing had to be brought to a logical conclusion at some point. We NEVER fired one single round of ammunition.”
FBI Spokesman 

“We were told that they weren’t going to be shooting and yet there firing what amounted to be mortars or rockets at us. Ah, these ferret rounds that sounded like a mortar.”
Clive Doyle

“With respects to the use of military weapons these… uh, these pieces of equipment were unarmed as I understand it and were contracted… I mean, it was like a good Rent-a-Car, ah… they were…” 
Janet Reno

“A good Rent-a-Car? A tank going into a building?”
Sen Bill Zeliff

“The back of the gym was thoroughly destroyed and it greatly disturbed me. At that point I lost all hope. At twelve o’clock someone yelled from upstairs that there was a fire.”
David Thibodeau 

“The place was beginning to fill with black smoke and me and Scott we stood there by the stairs and there was this kind of a ball of fire with tremendous heat which caused us to jump back out of the way.” 
Derek Lovelock

“There came a point when my rolling on the floor and trying to protect myself from the heat and being in the pitch black not able to see that the voices of those behind me screaming…. Kind of got through to me. I recognized who they were, could identify the voices and it kinda galvanized me to just leap to my feet and jump or dive head first in the general direction of where I figured the hole was. When I stood up, skin was rolling of my hands. My coat was all melted on my back and smoking. I looked back over my shoulder and the hole I just came out was a mass of flames and the first thought that came to me was, am I the only one?”
Clive Doyle

“The fire was just going on and on and we realized nobody came out. Thinking maybe my husband didn’t get out but maybe my children got out. Horrible horrible way to die. I try not to think about it because I keep thinking at some point they felt all the heat. I kept thinking the people in the square, they were the ones who maybe, they probably cooked to death. I think it was to be this tragedy to show what kind of people we have as a government.”
Shelia Martin

“I made the decision, I’m accountable. The buck stops with me, and nobody ever accused me of running from a decision that I made based on the best information that I had. I don’t do spin stuff and I’m not distancing anybody from anything. I’m telling you exactly what happened.”
Janet Reno

“Surprise would be a mild word, uh… to say that anyone that would suggest that the attorney general should resign because some religious fanatics murdered themselves.” 
President Bill Clinton

David Koresh and the Dravidian's set fire to themselves and committed suicide, government did not do that.”
Joseph P. Biden  U.S Senate Delaware

“No sir, not throughout the entire stand off.”
Larry Potts Former FBI Asst Director (when asked if the FBI fired one single shot)

“They didn’t view themselves as a cult. They viewed themselves as highly religious people.” 
Dick DeGuerin

“Without a correct understanding of the Branch Davidian’s religious faith, law enforcement was operating in a vacuum. They were not able to perceive the meaning of the religious language the Branch Davidian’s were using. They weren’t able to understand the actions that the Branch Davidian’s took. They were not able to know which precise course of action that would be of more value then another course of action, and they were unable to know which particular steps could precipitate disaster. Had they had the knowledge of the religious faith of the Branch Davidian’s this story could’ve ended in a much better and happier way.”
Phil Arnold 1995

“I see where this is going to be an endless thing.”
David Burns Cpt Texas Rangers Ret 1994

“I cover Waco in some of my classes to this day but most of my students born around the millennium do not remember that fateful monday morning in 1993 outside Waco, Texas”
James Tabor 2020

“I miss them, but I know I’ll see them again.”
Bonnie Haldeman 1994 

“If we forget, there’s gonna be a sad history to America. America demands we remember what happened here!”
Ruth Ottman Riddle 1994