04x03 - Ruby Ridge: The Real Story Part 1

[bunniefuu]

- The United States
deputy marshal

had been m*rder*d,
and two other deputy marshals

had been pinned down.

- We were told
the ones that k*lled the marshal

were now on the loose.

- The marshals were there
to arrest Randall Weaver

for failure to appear warrant.

- He had some connection
as a white separatist

with the Aryan Nations.

Randy Weaver
has been holed up in a remote

mountain cabin in Idaho
surrounded by an army of police

and federal agents.

- You want to know
everything about this guy,

what he's capable of, and who
our opponent is going to be.

- This guy was former military.

He may have had
Special Forces training.

- Mr. Woodland.

Mr. Firearms.

Booby traps...

And we didn't know exactly
how many people were up there

with him. They were
all heavily armed.

- And I see this individual
walking up.

So I'm taking pressure off
the trigger,

and all of a sudden,
the shot goes off.

- You're a disgrace
to the white race!

In the FBI,
we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings.

t*rror1st takedowns.

We understand why people

want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.
- Freeze!

- FBI.
- FBI.

- Action!

But they don't
know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other,

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is FBI True.

- Guys, is this the first time
you've ever been together

and talking about this
Ruby Ridge situation in public?

- It is.
- Absolutely.

I avoid talking about these
things as much as possible.

- I don't, uh...

It's not something
I enjoy speaking of.

- What made you decide
at this point that

this was a good venue
to talk about this together?

- We trust you guys
to do the right thing,

because these documentaries,
I don't care who does it,

it's always skewed
one way or the other.

This is the only way
it will probably ever

be told truthfully.

- There's no spin.

- There is no spin here.

Kristy Kottis
is a 24-year veteran of the FB.

She worked gangs,
crimes against children

as well as human
and drug trafficking.

- Take me back to when
you first get the notification

that you have to deploy.

- It was a Friday,
it was around midday.

I was over in the gym,
working out...

Jim McGee began
his career as a firefighter

for the National
Forest Service.

As a member of
the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team,

he received the Medal of Valor
for Exceptional Heroism.

- We get the 333
over the pager.

- We got the triple threes.

And then you knew
it was for real.

Something bad
had happened somewhere

and we need to deploy.

As an FBI Special
Agent, Charlie Rasner

worked domestic terrorism
and civil rights cases

before joining the FBI's Hostae
Rescue Team as a sn*per.

- When you get the triple three,
I mean, that's a good day.

That's what you were
on HRT for, is mission.

Dale Monroe
was a pilot in the Marine Corps

before becoming a Special Agent
with the FBI.

He joined the Hostage
Rescue Team in 1991.

- Did anyone have
an idea already

where you might be going?
- No.

- Nothing.

- You'd go over
to the HRT building,

get the briefing,
and then you find out.

So you guys
are all in the briefing room.

What do you hear?

- We had a United States

deputy marshal
who had been m*rder*d.

And apparently, he was with
at least two other

deputy marshals,
and they're doing

a reconnaissance of a cabin.

And they had been engaged
in a firefight.

- The marshals were there
to arrest Randall Weaver...

...for failure
to appear warrant.

That's all we really knew,

that he had violated
his court order

to appear in court.
- Later on,

we found out
the whole thing started

with the A*F case.

- Who's the A*F looking at?
- Aryan Nation.

- The Aryan Nation.
- Well, they had a source

and he convinces
Randy Weaver

to saw off
a couple of shotguns.

And now they want to do
what they did with their source,

they wanna make him
the next source.

And Randy? No, he doesn't
want to work for them.

He said, no, I'm not.

So they say, well,
we can charge you if you don't.

And he says, Go ahead,
charge me. So they charge him.

The charge is illegally...

- ...- modifying a weapon.
- Modifying shotguns.

The court docket says
he was supposed to report

February 20th.

They give him his paperwork.

His paperwork says
he's supposed to report

March 20th. So 2/20 goes by,

and he doesn't come down.
He's now a failure to appear.

- Right.
- So they arrest him.

He shows him his paperwork,
everybody realizes

there's been a mistake,
but you still have to answer

for these charges. He says
you'll never see me again.

- And so the marshals
were ordered by a federal judge

to bring him in.
And that's why they were

conducting surveillance,
to try to catch him off

the compound so they could
peacefully arrest him

and bring him in.

- The marshals were
actually leaving for the day,

but they had to change
the batteries.

- Surveillance was burned,
and they were

essentially ambushed.

And the marshal was k*lled.

- So that's what we're hearing.
Basically, it's a bad situation.

From our perspective.
All right, well,

there may be a need
for a rescue here, right?

Immediately, to get those guys
out who are pinned down.

So they're going to call
the final option.

That's the HRT.
- Mm-hmm.

- You know, we're going
into this situation,

this guy, he's in like,
this isolated cabin...

...up on a mountaintop
in the panhandle of Idaho.

I knew we were going
into some very, very

rough terrain,
because, just by chance,

ten years earlier,
I had spent a month in that area

fighting a major forest fire.

- Oh, wow.
- I knew we were going

into some steep terrain.

If you weren't used
to hiking hills,

you were gonna get used to it.

- We're getting ready.
A deputy U.S. marshal

has been m*rder*d.
We don't know

how it happened exactly.
We want to know everything about

Randall Weaver,
about what he's capable of

and who our opponent
is going to be.

So we want information.

- After we landed,
at an Air Force base

in Washington State,

then we had to drive from there

to Bonners Ferry, Idaho,
which is up close

to the Canada border,

and that's where
we received the briefing.

- What do they tell you
at Bonners Ferry?

- You know, this guy
was former military.

And so, he may have had
some Special Forces training.

Also that he had some connection

as a white separatist
with the Aryan Nations.

- My impression was
he was a former Green Beret.

If you remember the movie
Rambo at the time,

they were comparing him
to that guy.

Mr. Woodland.
Mr. Firearms Expert.

Mr. expl*sives. Booby traps.

Be careful. He's gonna get out
in the woods and outflank you,

if possible, and we didn't know
exactly how many people

were up there with him.
They were all heavily armed.

- And that's where we found
out that the Idaho State Police

SWAT team had the body
of Deputy Marshal

William Degan
coming off the mountain.

- They'd been able
to extract him,

as well as the other
deputy marshals

who have also been able
to get out of the area.

So they're no longer
pinned down.

That changes things.

Now it goes from
an emergency as*ault

to try to rescue these guys
to more of a sn*per mission.

So they're going to have
to go in and gather intelligence

and see what the heck
we're dealing with.

- Our job is to go
and arrest this person

who apparently has just m*rder*d
a federal marshal.

And so, we want information.

- So at this time,
you don't have any details

of how that transpired,
how they got burned.

- Right. What we got
was incomplete and fragmented,

but we knew that
he was viciously m*rder*d.

- Right.
- And that they were

running around the mountain
and we didn't know where.

- There was no perimeter,
no knowledge of where they were.

And so, we were supposed
to figure that out.

They gave us a little bit
of information on the family.

- Who do you understand
those individuals are?

- Randy and Vicki Weaver...

their friend Kevin Harris,

the kids of Randy,
Vicki Weaver, Sara, Rachel,

Sammy and Elisheba.

- Two of the kids were armed.

Sammy and Sara.

- We were told that
they didn't really care

for trespassers,
and we were told this.

They had, around the cabin,

various rock outcroppings
which they would run to,

doing these ready action drills

with long weapons
to engage anybody

who might come
on their property.

- From there,
what are you thinking?

- We got somebody up there
that's willing to k*ll

a deputy U.S. marshal.
They'll k*ll us just as well.

So we have to be on our game.
We don't know where they are.

We know that
the terrain is vast.

It's a wilderness.
It's their turf, not ours.

We're foreigners,
we're invaders in their eyes.

And we need to be very careful
when we go up there.

- Jim, assaulters are not
going to get into position

until the sn*pers
have set up the perimeter.

- As an assaulter,
I was still at the bottom

of the mountain,
where we were planning

for a possible as*ault
on the cabin.

- We're about two and a half,
three-hour climb

from the staging area to...
- Yeah, easily.

- ...our perimeter
to the cabin.

And before we even got
the perimeter set up...

...we could have been
ambushed at any time.

So going up there,
we're definitely alert

to the right, to the left,
to the back of us,

the front of us as to anybody
that could ambush us.

- Take me to that scene.
You guys have backpacks,

all your equipment,
do they drop you at a trailhead?

Like, where do they drop you?
Where do you start?

- Well, two marshals
led the way.

They took us up
most of the way

to what was considered
a "Y" in the trail.

And that's where they left us.
And then they pointed

to where the cabin was.
And then we ended up

working our way
to put up a half-moon

sn*per positions
around the house,

so we could see
what was going on,

if anything happened.
- Right.

- We only had 13 sn*pers,
which is not many,

when you consider
the vastness of the terrain.

- We ended up going in first,

and then we set up
the final firing position.

Our observation point.
My partner Lon had his r*fle.

He decided to kneel.

There was a branch
coming out of the tree.

Perfect height. I went prone.

All the other sn*pers
went prone as well.

- The command post
was way down here.

The cabin was way up here.

And my partner and I
were in overwatch position,

which was about 600 yards
above the cabin.

We had drag bags, I would say
we had a couple hundred pounds

here easily with food, water,
ammunition, weapons.

We had the long g*ns
and had sidearms.

- We see the helicopter...

...buzzing in and out.

We know it's got
our command staff in it.

It's a small helicopter,
it's tiny.

We call it the little bird.
Two pilots,

maybe two passengers.

We see the helicopter
in our face

and then under the clouds
dipping back and forth,

trying to get a viewpoint
of the cabin,

and the vicinity of the cabin.

- I heard the helicopter.

And as soon as it...
It looked like it was up

to my high left.
I didn't think anything of it.

And all of a sudden,
the cabin door swings open

and three people run out.
Sara, Kevin and Randy Weaver.

I'm watching them
through my scope.

And all of a sudden,
I look, and I'm looking

right at the birthing shed
as well as the cabin.

And I see this individual
walking up

kind of in a crouched manner,

coming up the back side
of the birthing shed.

And so, I mentioned this to Lon.
He sees it too.

And then the individual
gets to the edge

of the birthing shed.

And now he turns
and in a crouched,

aggressive kind of stance,
and up comes the r*fle.

There was no doubt in my mind
he was going to fire

at the helicopter.
- Right.

- So I'm taking
pressure off the trigger,

and all of a sudden,
the shot goes off.

And it was right
into my ear

because it was my partner
Lon's shot that went off.

I see it hit Weaver.

And he starts running,
and then all of a sudden,

I see the other two
come into view,

and then Randy
joined up with Kevin,

and they're looking at
Lon and I's direction,

like they knew where
the shot came from.

- Mm-hmm.
- And their weapons

are at port arms,

pointing at our direction,

and they're moving
toward the cabin.

So, Weaver was ahead of him

and got in,
and Lon's shot goes off again.

And it's the same thing.
I know... It's again Lon's shot.

Then I see Harris stumble a bit

and then fall into the doorway.

That was the last thing I saw

until we heard about 30 seconds
worth of screams.

And we're wondering, you know,
what the heck is that?

I was thinking the two males
had been shot.

And I thought maybe
more seriously

than I thought they were shot,
because of all these screams.

After the shots,
we talked about the hits.

- Right.
- And I told him

I definitely know he hit Weaver.

And I said,
and I'm pretty sure

you hit the second shot.

You hit Harris.

- We have a dead
United States deputy marshal.

And these guys are suspected
of murdering him.

- Mm-hmm.
- So we're getting the job done.

- The next day,
we went right back up there.

- We knew we were gonna
go right back out.

- Not knowing
where they were again.

- Right.
- Right.

- And what we've been
tasked to do is to clear

and dismantle
these various outbuildings;

birthing shed, tack shed,
outhouse, whatever,

so that the sn*pers,
and us as well,

would have a clear view
of the cabin,

because now, we're going
to set up on the perimeter

in an emergency as*ault status.

We were going to continue
that mission until all of those

buildings were dismantled

and then we were gonna
start on the cabin.

- My partner and I
had moved down

to the birthing shed, which was


One of the operators,
Jack Morrison,

exited the APC,
because the thought was,

"Well, we better check
the building before

we start dismantling,
we can't just knock it down.

It might have expl*sives,
it might have anything,

it may be booby trapped.
We don't know."

So Jack goes over
to the building and I...

I'm 20 yards from him
at that point,

and I realize he doesn't
have anybody with him.

He's by himself
clearing this building.

And I hear him,
he kicks the door,

starts giving commands.
I run up there.

Probably a foolish thing to do

because I expose myself
to fire from the house.

But I thought,
I've gotta get up there.

- You weren't gonna let him
go by himself.

- Precisely.
So we both go up there.

We both go in the building
and we're yelling at this person

that's on this table
to get down on the ground,

to follow commands.
We're the FBI,

we announce who we are
over and over.

Nothing.

I go up to him, grab him,

I look, realize
he's not moving. Dead.

Look into his eyes.

They're black holes almost.

Been dead three or four days,

it looked like.

And then we radio the TOC.
"We have a crime scene

here in the shed.
There's a corpse."

I describe, he looked like
about 10 to 12 years old.

It's a child. Yeah.
- A child.

Body's cold, lifeless.

He was naked
to his underwear.

He had been cleaned
because I could tell

he had wounds. We unwrapped him.

He was wrapped
in a shower curtain.

White shower curtain.
So I unwrap the body.

And I looked at his wounds.
I lifted his arms.

His right arm was shredded,
because in my mind,

it appeared to me
that he was shot

while holding something
like a r*fle,

the b*llet had entered here
in his right arm

and shredded his whole arm,
the flesh hanging out

and he had been cleaned up
by the family,

I think, probably for burial
or something.

And he had another wound
here in the back,

and the exit wound.
So I think he probably

got spun around
when he got shot.

- What rushed across
to you at that point?

- That we needed
to slow this train.

We need to stop this train.

Figure out what we have here,
because we have an unidentified

deceased individual.

And I started
going through my mind,

who all was in there
on this compound

that this could be?
And it hit me that it was maybe

Sammy, the kid, the son.

I'm thinking this is worse
than we thought.

It was a really, really bad...

Now it's really way worse.

The family was grief-stricken.
And so, I felt for them,

I felt horrible for them,
a tremendous loss.

Parents, there's no telling
the amount of grief

you go through when you lose
a child before your death.

So I thought, well,
how is this going to affect

these people mentally,
and what are they thinking

inside there? Are they now
just going to say,

to heck with it,
and k*ll us all?

Next time,
on FBI True.

- You know, he's putting
suppression fire down

and ends up k*lling Sammy.

- It's beginning to get
more and more aggressive.

Now, you have not only
a threat from within,

but you have an outer
perimeter threat.

And it's really a perimeter
that you cannot contain.

We're going to w*r!

- Never!

- But when I get
through that door,

I'm not stopping 'til I get
to the opposite wall,

because I'm going home
when this is over with.

So if that little girl
is standing there

with a long weapon
pointed at me,

I mean, you got to do
what you got to do.