Several people, ourselves included, have filed public records requests with the Waco Texas police department seeking information about the events of May 17th in the Twin Peaks shooting. However, the Waco PD is clearly violating the spirit and intent of Texas Public Records laws while responding with essentially irrelevant information.
With more scrutiny of the events, some LEO advocates find themselves in denial mode as the ever-growing probability looms that many, if not most, of the killed/wounded met their fate as a consequence of an over-aggressive police response. Jason Sickles of Yahoo News has his take. (We embed the released FOIA information below – you can decide.)
TEXAS – As questions remain unanswered about last month’s deadly biker rampage in Waco, Texas, police there are trying to clamp down on public information about the case.
The move comes as scrutiny intensifies over the Waco Police Department’s handling of the sensational shootout that killed nine bikers, injured 18 and saw an unprecedented 175 people arrested and charged with engaging in organized crime.
By law, crime and arrest reports containing basic data — information such as a detailed description of the offense and the name and a description of the victim — have to be provided.
While some details about the dead, including identities, have trickled out, officials have been slow to provide information through documented reports as required by the Texas Public Records Act.
Documents that have been released to Yahoo News appear to be haphazardously redacted. Even though required by law, the names of arresting officers are omitted. But the identities, addresses and other contact information of suspects’ next of kin are prevalent.
Key aspect the Waco PD are hiding –> […] Still unknown is where each victim was killed and by whom. Police officers have acknowledged firing on armed bikers, but it is not clear how many of the dead were shot by gang members and how many were shot by officers.
Yahoo News submitted a written request on May 19 for reports related to the nine people who were shot and killed at the Twin Peaks restaurant.
On Wednesday, the Waco city attorney’s office asked the Texas attorney general for permission to withhold the records from Yahoo News and other media outlets {*snip* us}that have made similar requests. (link to full Waco City response)
“The need to withhold the information pertaining to an open and pending case in order to deal with the detection, investigation, and/or prosecution of a crime is a compelling reason for nondisclosure,” wrote Judith Benton, assistant city attorney.
Veteran civil attorney Bill Aleshire of Austin, Texas, said Waco’s argument still doesn’t allow the city to circumvent rules on providing basic public information that have been in place nearly 40 years.
“That’s just bedrock open government law,” Aleshire said.
Waco did release 19 pages of documents to Yahoo News, including one mostly blank page. Other than a few dispatch call logs about the first shots fired, none of the pages pertain to the homicide reports sought by Yahoo News in the Twin Peaks deaths.
(*snip* Yahoo got the same FOIA results we did)
[scribd id=267686634 key=key-wNc1txDURz9vPgbQLDkS mode=scroll]
Yahoo News asked Benton, the assistant city attorney, if the 19 pages were sent by mistake.
“You requested incident reports dealing with the shootings and homicides,” she said. “And that’s what you got.”
Benton said that no true homicide reports existed when the request was made on May 19. Waco, however, waited the maximum days allowed by law to answer the request and printed the unrelated reports Wednesday morning.
“At the time you made your request, that’s what we had,” Benton told Yahoo News.
While technically legal, Aleshire likened the date issue to a prank.
“That’s game-playing by public officials that need an attitude adjustment,” he said. (article link)
Waco PD are highly skilled in the fine art of “game-playing”.
♦ Waco Research Thread 1 – The initial Shooting As Reported
♦ Waco Research Thread 2 – LEO Affidavits Inconsistent With Spokesperson Claims
♦ Waco Research Thread 3 – The Waco Police Narrative Continues To Evolve
♦ Waco Research Thread 4 – CCTV Video Refutes Original 3 Days of Police Claims
♦ Waco Research Thread 5 – Listen to the Waco PD Radio Traffic
♦ Waco Research Thread 6 – 14 Officers Were Shooting – Report: “Thousands of rounds”
♦ Waco Research Thread 7 – Washington Post eye-witness account
♦ Waco Research Thread 8 – The Fill-in-the-blank Probable Cause Affidavit
♦ Waco Research Thread 9 – The Crossfire – Understanding the proximity of fire.
♦ Waco Research Thread 10 – Report: Only Four Officers Opened Fire in Hail of Bullets.
♦ Waco Research Thread 11 – First Lawsuit Filed
♦ Waco Research Thread 12 – The Liability Release Story
♦ Waco Research Thread 13 – Twenty Five Bikers released. Bond Reductions
For those folks who are seeking the origin of the FUBAR, a possibility exists within this highly charged radio transmission from Waco PD.
12:28:11 ETMC NOTIFIED, SENDING SEVERAL UNITS, WILL STAGE
12:28:53 TWO SHOT BEHIND TWIN PEAKS
12:29:20 ADVISED THEY WERE SHOOTING AT KITCHEN WORKERS, MULTIPLE SHOTS FIRED INSIDE
12:29:38 THEY HAVE AN AR15
12:29:46 NEED ONE INSIDE/POSSIBLE SHOT IN BATHROOM
12:30:00 ADVISED THEY HAVE SHOT PEOPLE INSIDE TWIN PEAKS
Some LEO on the scene during the events reported this via radio. However, the facts of what was taking place are 180° divergent. We know from the AP who reviewed the CCTV no-one was shooting inside Twin Peaks, no-one was shot inside Twin Peaks, there were no active shooters inside Twin Peaks.
Find the voice behind that transmission and they might just find the source of the overreaction that led to all the LEO killing.
There is a possibility people on the “patio” were shot. There is a possibility the “patio” victims might be counted as “inside”. However, the CCTV reflects, if these interpretations of the definition of “inside” was actually “the patio” and accurate, the Waco PD did all of that shooting.
FUBAR !
