HOUSTON -- A shootout among members of several rival motorcycle gangs in a busy shopping plaza in the Central Texas city of Waco on Sunday left at least nine bikers dead and 18 others injured, creating chaos in a sprawling parking lot packed with afternoon shoppers, law enforcement officials said.
The gunfire erupted about 12:15 p.m. outside a Twin Peaks Restaurant, where members of the motorcycle clubs had gathered. The fight spilled into the parking lot, initially involving just fists and feet, but escalating quickly to chains, knives, clubs and firearms. Waco police officers were already at the scene when the confrontation unfolded because they had anticipated problems as hundreds of bikers from at least five groups gathered at the shopping plaza.
"There were multiple people on the scene firing weapons at each other," Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police Department spokesman, said at a news conference. "They then turned on our officers. Our officers returned gunfire, wounding and possibly killing several."
Law enforcement officials said the shootout was the worst violence in Waco since the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993 that left 86 people dead. On Sunday, eight members of motorcycle clubs were killed at the scene and another died at a hospital, Swanton said. The injured were taken to hospitals with gunshot and stab wounds.
No officers, shoppers or bystanders were injured. The authorities said their decision to place officers outside the restaurant before the gunfire erupted most likely saved lives.
"There were so many rounds fired from bad-guy weapons here, it is amazing that innocent civilians were not injured here," said Swanton, who added that investigators expected to recover about 100 weapons. "In 34 years of law enforcement, this is the worst crime scene - the most violent crime scene - that I have ever been involved in. There are dead people still there. There is blood everywhere."
The police did not identify the groups involved, but photographs of the members who were arrested showed a number of them in leather jackets bearing the names of at least three motorcycle clubs: Bandidos, Cossacks and Scimitars.
Hours after the shooting, police officials were still issuing messages on social media warning people to stay away from the shopping plaza, the Central Texas Marketplace, saying that it was closed because it was unsafe. "Officers are continuing to arrest individuals coming to the scene with weapons," one of the department's Facebook postings read. "This is not the time to sight see as we are dealing with very dangerous individuals."
The police detained numerous people involved in the fight, Swanton said, and arrested three bikers who were carrying weapons and who were caught trying to reach the scene after the fighting had quieted down. He said they would be charged with engaging in organized crime.
Dozens of officers and medics from local, state and federal agencies converged on the Central Texas Marketplace. A spokeswoman for the FBI office in San Antonio said agents were assisting the Waco police in the investigation.
The Twin Peaks Restaurant had hosted motorcycle gang members in the past, the police said. The authorities made little effort on Sunday to conceal their frustration with the restaurant's managers, who they said had previously been uncooperative in dealing with the Police Department's security concerns about biker gatherings there.
"We have attempted to work with the local management of Twin Peaks to no avail," Swanton said. "They have continued to allow these bikers to gather here, and this is the culmination of what has occurred." He added: "What happened here today could have been avoided if we had had management at a local establishment listen to their police department and assist us. They failed to do that."
On Sunday, at least 12 Waco police officers, as well as officers with the state's top law enforcement agency, the Texas Department of Public Safety, worked to secure the area before the shootout started because officials "expected issues," Swanton said.
"Apparently, the management wanted them here," he said, "so we didn't have any say-so on whether they could be here or not."
Twin Peaks is a national restaurant chain with several Texas locations.
The restaurant in Waco opened last year, and company officials told a local newspaper that it would employ 150 people and be able to accommodate more than 350. In an announcement about the restaurant's opening, Twin Peaks promoted the location as the "ultimate man-cave," with at least 55 flat-screen televisions and 24 types of beer. As recently as last week, the restaurant advertised "Bike Night" on Thursdays and promised "beers, bites and bikes at the hottest place in town!"
In a statement, a spokesman for the Twin Peaks Restaurant chain emphasized that the shooting had occurred outside the restaurant.
"We were shocked by the shootings that took place in the parking lot of our franchised restaurant in Waco and are fully reviewing all the circumstances surrounding it," the spokesman, Rick Van Warner, said. "We are thankful no employees, guests or police were injured in this senseless violence outside the restaurant, and our sympathies are with the families of those killed."
Later, in a phone interview, Van Warner said the company was "seriously considering revoking the franchise based on this situation." He added: "If any of those allegations are true that there was ample warning to potentially prevent something of this nature, then there is no way we would allow someone to continue operating under our own brand."
Jay Patel, operating partner of the Waco franchise, issued a statement Sunday night defending the restaurant's dealings with the police and saying that the managers "share in the community's trauma."
"Our priority is to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for our customers and employees, and we consider the police our partners in doing so," Patel's statement read. "Our management team has had ongoing and positive communications with the police and we will continue to work with them as we all want to keep violent crime out of our businesses and community."
Swanton said the confrontation appeared to have "started over a parking issue," but he declined to elaborate. Another law enforcement official said that the rival gangs needed no incitement and that simply crossing paths was enough to cause problems.
Asked if the authorities knew the names of the clubs involved, Swanton said, "We do, but we're not going to give them the privilege at this point of putting their names out there." While emphasizing that the authorities were still in the early stages of an investigation, he described the biker gangs involved as "dangerous" and "hostile."
"This is not a bunch of doctors and dentists and lawyers riding Harleys," Swanton said. "These are criminals on Harley-Davidsons."
In a report on gang activity submitted last year to the governor and the state Legislature, law enforcement officials classified the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, known as Bandidos OMG, as a Tier 2 threat, the second-highest level. The report, prepared annually by the state Department of Public Safety, noted that the Bandidos were formed in the 1960s and typically avoided high-profile activities such as drive-by shootings.
Tier 2 gangs were "responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime across urban, suburban and rural areas of Texas," the report said.
Manny Fernandez reported from Houston, Liam Stack from New York and Alan Blinder from Atlanta.