The Bandidos are leading members of the COC&I while the Cossacks are not. COC&I has twelve regions, and Waco is in Region 1. Īccording to the police, most previous meetings of COC&I for that region had been held in Austin, Texas. Based in Tyler, Texas, the coalition engages in a broad range of activities for example, it was honored by the city council of Jacksonville, Texas, on May 14 for its involvement in Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month. The shootout erupted at a regularly scheduled regional meeting of the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents (COC&I), the statewide biker club coalition, involved in political issues regarding the rights of motorcyclists.
On May 1, 2015, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued an advisory statement to police: "The conflict may stem from Cossacks members refusing to pay Bandidos dues for operating in Texas and for claiming Texas as their territory by wearing the Texas bottom rocker on their vests, or ' cuts.'" Some of those previously-injured bikers were arrested in Waco after the shootout on May 17.
A police affidavit described fighting between Bandidos and Cossacks going back to November 2013, including brawls resulting in injuries, in Abilene, Palo Pinto County, and Lorena, Texas. Skirmishes over the issue continued on March 22, 2015. It allegedly started following the beating of a Cossack by Bandidos at a Toys for Tots event in Decatur, Texas on December 6, 2014, and the killing of a gang member of the Ghostriders MC the following week in Fort Worth. Following the shootout, police spokesman Patrick Swanton said a turf war between the rival thugs was a factor in the deadly encounter. A police affidavit released June 16 described the source of the conflict in similar terms. The dominant Bandidos claimed the right to approve all such jacket bottom rocker patches. That assessment said that the Bandidos Motorcycle Club "conducts their illegal activities as covertly as possible, and avoids high-profile activities such as drive-by shootings that many street gangs tend to commit." Īccording to Steve Cook, executive director of the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association, an element of the dispute had to do with the right of Texas outlaw motorcycle clubs to wear jackets decorated with distinctive patches, including a geographic bottom rocker reading "Texas", indicating Texas as the territory of the club. In 2014, the Texas Department of Public Safety listed the Bandidos Motorcycle Club as a "Tier 2" threat, the same rating as the Crips, Bloods, and Aryan Brotherhood, but it did not evaluate the Cossacks. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the shootout led to a "four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions." According to The New York Times, "the response by prosecutors was widely criticized as brazen overreach". Nine bikers were killed, 18 others wounded or injured, and 177 individuals were ultimately arrested and initially detained in connection with the shootout, most for alleged participation in organized crime. Law enforcement, which included 18 members of the Waco police and four state troopers, had gathered to monitor the restaurant and meeting from outside, and, according to police, "returned fire after being shot at". On May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas, United States, a shootout erupted at a Twin Peaks restaurant where more than 200 persons, including members from motorcycle clubs that included the Bandidos, Cossacks, and allies, had gathered for a meeting about political rights for motorcyclists.
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