This record documents two distinct episodes involving the Branch Davidians, a group that grew out of a schism within the Seventh day Adventist tradition, each examined by a different authority and reaching a different kind of finding.
The first is the 1993 siege near Waco, Texas. On 28 February 1993 agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attempted to serve search and arrest warrants at the group's Mount Carmel settlement; the attempt ended in a gun battle that killed four agents and six Branch Davidians and began a fifty one day siege. On 19 April 1993 a final assault using tear gas was followed by a fire that killed roughly seventy six people inside, including leader David Koresh and more than twenty children. Congressional hearings followed in 1995, and a federal investigation led by former senator John Danforth concluded in 2000 that government agents did not start the fire and did not fire shots that day, while criticizing officials for not disclosing their earlier use of pyrotechnic tear gas rounds.
The second is a separate matter examined a year earlier by a different body entirely. In February 1992, responding to a complaint from David Jewell, the father of a young member, Texas Child Protective Services caseworker Joyce Sparks visited Mount Carmel, interviewed Koresh and the children living there, and closed the case for lack of evidence. After the 1993 raid, Texas officials said none of the twenty one children released during the standoff had confirmed the abuse allegations either. The child welfare inquiry and the federal law enforcement operation that followed involved different agencies, different conduct, and reached separate, unconnected conclusions.