Chief: 3 cops fired shots when Texas biker shooting erupted

WACO, Texas (AP) – Texas officers responding to a deadly melee outside a biker gathering in Waco had disabled their automatic rifles so the weapons couldn’t fire more than one round per trigger pull, the city’s police department said Friday, countering witnesses who said they heard what sounded like gunfire from automatic weapons.

Only three of the nearly two dozen officers outside the Twin Peaks restaurant fired their weapons, shooting a total of 12 bullets, after gunfire erupted following a dispute between two rival biker gangs, according to Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and statements released by his office. The officers were staged outside the restaurant on May 17, in anticipation of a large meeting of biker groups.

“We did not fire indiscriminately into the crowd. Our officers were restrained,” Stroman said during a news conference Friday in Waco.

Investigators have said the shooting began after an apparent confrontation between the Bandidos, the predominant motorcycle club in Texas, and the Cossacks. The fight spilled into the parking lot, and police said they fired only after being shot at.

The shooting left nine people dead and 18 injured. Investigators haven’t said who fired the fatal shots.

Stroman said Friday that investigators collected 44 shell casings from the scene. Police also said that 151 firearms were among the hundreds of weapons recovered from the scene that included knives, brass knuckles, tomahawks, bats, a machete and a chain. Some weapons were stashed in between bags of flour in the restaurant’s kitchen, while others were recovered with metal detectors, found buried under grass, police said.

Stroman also defended investigators’ decision to arrest about 175 bikers following the shooting, and charge each with engaging in organized crime. About 60 of those arrested are still in jail, mostly bikers and their friends and family.

“Those people who went to jail that night, there was probable cause for that arrest,” Stroman said.