They accused police of mishandling the confrontation and giving the public РІР‚Сљa false narrative.РІР‚Сњ The Bandidos denied any wrongdoing in a news release after the gunfight. They scoff at the notion that they are gangs in disguise. That label is derived from a quote that may be apocryphal but is part of biker lore that dates back to the 1960s: Someone supposedly said that 99% of bikers are law-abiding citizens, leaving the mayhem to the other one percent.Р”В«oth clubs deny they are involved in criminal activities such as drug distribution. Law enforcement officials call them outlaw biker clubs, among the РІР‚Сљone-percenters.РІР‚Сњ Now, theyРІР‚в„ўre considered an upstart, with about 800 members and, according to police, a strong desire to beef up their presence in their home state of Texas.Р”Р„lthough the bikers insist their clubs are social, even philanthropic organizations, police see both as criminal gangs. The Cossacks formed a few years later but kept a low profile. They have a national presence, particularly in Southern states. The Bandidos, formed in Houston in 1966, are the oldest, largest and most powerful motorcycle group in Texas with more than 2,000 members, according to the Department of Justice. The oldest club in Texas versus the upstarts They also show that tension had been building for months between the two motorcycle clubs. These begin to tell the story of how a midday gunfight turned the parking lot of a Waco strip mall into a battle zone. Police and prosecutors are silenced by a gag order a grand jury is weighing charges in the case.Р”В«ut against a backdrop of official silence, CNN has obtained thousands of pages of documents - including police intelligence reports, crime scene photos and witness interviews - as well as surveillance video. More than five months later, no one has been charged in the deaths of the nine bikers. All were jailed on $1 million bail each and charged with engaging in organized crime activity. Some 177 bikers were arrested - so many that they were taken to the Waco Convention Center and held for processing in separate rooms: one for members of the club known as the Bandidos and the other for their rivals, the Cossacks. In all, police recovered 480 weapons: 151 guns, along with assorted knives, brass knuckles, batons, hammers, and the bikersРІР‚в„ў blunt objects of choice - padlocks wrapped in bandanas. SWAT team officers drove a pickup truck to the crime scene РІР‚Сљso we could pile the firearms in the bed to try to keep suspects from moving over the top of them,РІР‚Сњ Holt noted in his report. РІР‚СљI asked anybody who had a gun to raise their hand,РІР‚Сњ Waco Officer Ryan Holt wrote in a police report obtained by CNN.Р”Р„s Holt and his fellow officers disarmed the injured bikers, so many guns piled up on the ground that they literally got in the way. A police officer asked what every other cop there must have wondered at that moment: How many of you are armed? Many more were injured, bleeding from gunshots and knife wounds. WACO, Texas - After the guns fell silent on May 17 - one of the bloodiest afternoons in the history of American motorcycle clubs - nine bikers lay dead in a strip mall parking lot littered with weapons.

Bandidos cossacks