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Fehn called the U.S. Marshals office in Denver, which in turn
contacted the Texas 7 command post in Huntsville, Texas, set up in a
facility near the state’s execution chamber some 1057 or so miles
south of Woodland Park, Colorado. At approximately 10 p.m., a
dark, overcast night caused by cloud cover that would likely bring
more snow to the area overnight, Fehn and Bright took an unmarked
car and drove to within 50 yards of the recreational vehicle that
they believed was being used by the Texas 7 to scope out the
situation from a law enforcement standpoint. The setting
seemed almost ideal for the escaped convicts, or any other criminal
on the run from the law. Fehn’s first concern was how they
were going to approach the situation from a strategic perspective
and not get anyone hurt or killed in the process. There was
going to be substantial risk to life and property, and he knew it.
Meanwhile, Ron Knight, 51,the violent crimes supervisor for the
FBI in Denver, had gone to bed after being briefed on the situation
and that Sheriff Fehn, with help from FBI field agents, were working
on attempting to eliminate the men inside the RV as suspects.
One of Knight’s agents woke him up three hours later and informed
him that because of the potential danger to civilians, as well as to
law enforcement officers, it would not be tactically feasible to
attempt to flush out the suspects in the present setting.
There were far too many motor homes with people inside them in close
proximity to the suspected RV to risk such an action. As a
result, it would not be possible to eliminate, or confirm, that the
men inside the Pace Arrow were the men that they were looking for.
The investigators had also learned that the men drove two other
vehicles in and out of the RV park. One was a brown Ford van,
and the other a silver Jeep Cherokee.
Knight didn’t waste any time. He got dressed, grabbed the
file on the Texas 7 that he had, fortunately, taken home with him
for the weekend, and left his Littleton, Colorado home and began the
hour and a half drive to the Teller County Sheriff’s Department.
When Knight arrived at about 4 a.m., a total of seven officers
from the U.S. Marshal’s office, FBI, Teller County Sheriff’s
Department, and neighboring El Paso County Sheriff’s Department
filled Sheriff Fehn’s small, unassuming office to begin making
plans on how they were going to deal with the seven men in the RV.
Due to Knight’s background as an Army Ranger in Vietnam and the
fact that he had led SWAT team operations during standoffs with
David Koresh and his Branch Davidian religious followers at Waco,
the Freemen in Montana, and at the Ruby Ridge homestead of Randy and
Vicki Weaver in Idaho, which resulted in the deaths of Vicki and
their son, Sammy, the group selected Knight as the person in charge
of this operation.
It was decided that all radio communications involving the
operation would be cut off. The investigators were aware of
the police scanners that the inmates had stolen during their robbery
of the Radio Shack in Pearland, and did not want to take any chances
that the seven were listening in.
Next on their agenda was to develop a plan in which they could
move the SWAT teams into the RV park without being noticed.
Sheriff Fehn told the group that he owned an RV, and offered its
use. He volunteered to pose as a tourist, change the license
plate to an out-of-state plate, and drive the teams in. When
the group agreed to the plan, 10 SWAT team members from the FBI
practiced the planned mobilization, particularly getting in and out
of Fehn’s RV quickly while carrying automatic assault rifles and
wearing body armor. They appropriately code named Fehn’s RV,
“The Trojan Horse.”
Shortly after dawn, before the assault teams were ready to move
into place, Knight’s cellular phone rang. One of his agents
informed him that the brown Ford van was gone from where it had been
observed parked earlier. One or more of the men had driven it
out of the park before the SWAT teams could secure the park’s
perimeter. The operation had suddenly become more difficult,
and potentially more dangerous. Instead of keeping the
park’s perimeter secure, they had to worry about when the van,
carrying an undetermined number of people, might return and catch
the cops as they moved into their positions.
Police sharp shooters, perhaps best described as snipers, took
their positions at the top of the hill, above the RV where they
believed the Texas 7 were hiding out. Just when everyone
thought that matters couldn’t get any worse, they did. Three
men came out of the RV and hopped into the silver Jeep Cherokee
parked nearby. Fehn, several hundred feet down the hill, had
been notified of the suspects’ movement and climbed quickly back
inside his own RV to await their arrival. However, instead of
stopping at the office, they drove right by everyone, out of the
park, and turned west onto U.S. Highway 24.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team, which
had volunteered to conduct an assault on a moving vehicle if
necessary, was ready. They followed several blocks behind the
silver Cherokee in a black van and a white Chevrolet Tahoe sport
utility vehicle. To everyone’s horror the Cherokee, soon
after entering Woodland Park, turned into the parking lot of a
Safeway grocery store, the site where the authorities had set up the
communications outpost for their operation! They only hoped
that the suspects didn’t go anywhere near the rear of the store
where the outpost, which consisted of a clearly marked El Paso
County Sheriff’s Department van and other marked vehicles, was
partially hidden from view. No one had planned for this
contingency, and everyone prayed that the men in the Cherokee
didn’t spot that arm of the operation. If they did, the
situation could turn deadly very quickly, particularly with all of
the women, children, and others that steadily came and went from the
store and from the adjacent Burger King.
El Paso County Sheriff John Anderson watched the Cherokee and its
occupants from a safe distance. The driver got out and went
into the store and the other two men remained inside the vehicle.
Anderson repeatedly tried to reach his colleagues on his cellular
phone, but he couldn’t get a signal to place the call.
Dressed in civilian clothes, Anderson got out of his vehicle and
walked into the parking lot to attempt to get a closer look.
As he did so, the driver came out of the store and got back inside
the Cherokee and drove away.
One of the SWAT team members finally got his phone to work, and
he relayed the message that the Cherokee was traveling on U.S.
Highway 24 again, this time heading east. The message was
relayed to El Paso County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team commander
Terry Maketa, who in turn relayed it to Lt. Ken Moore, who began
looking for the silver Cherokee farther down the highway.
Thankful that the Cherokee had left the site of the busy store, the
vehicle assault team continued their pursuit from a safe distance.
Anderson was two cars behind the Cherokee, as were the SWAT team
vehicles, when it turned into the Western convenience store and gas
station and parked next to a gas pump.
In a somewhat spur-of-the-moment but fully coordinated effort,
Maketa pulled his car in front of the Cherokee to block it from
moving forward, and the van carrying the vehicle assault SWAT team
members pulled in behind the Cherokee. Six SWAT team members
jumped out of the van and trained their automatic assault rifles on
the three suspects, sending horrified customers screaming and
running away from the scene.
“Get your hands in the air!” shouted one of the cops.
“Don’t move!” shouted another. “Get your hands
up!”
Without taking their eyes off of the three men for even a second,
the SWAT team advanced toward the Cherokee, their guns pointed and
ready to shoot in an instant if any one of the three suspects made a
move that the police perceived as threatening. One of the cops
pulled the driver out of the Cherokee first and threw him onto the
pavement, while another searched the fanny pack he was wearing.
Not surprisingly, the fanny pack contained a handgun. The
lawmen immediately recognized the driver as Joseph Garcia.
Michael Rodriguez was in the back seat, also wearing a fanny
pack. When the cops pulled him out of the Cherokee, a handgun
fell out and landed on the pavement with several frightening clanks
in the process. One of the SWAT team members kicked it out of
the way while another one frisked Rodriguez, finding another handgun
in his fanny pack in the process.
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| George Rivas, with hair
dyed blond, captured (AP) |
George Rivas, the group’s ringleader, was the passenger in the
front seat. As he got out of the vehicle, one of the cops
continuously yelled at him to keep his hands where they could see
them. Rivas stopped and glared at the police officers, and at
one point his fingers began to twitch, as if he might have been
considering making a break for it. For all the cops knew, he
might have been planning to reach for yet another gun that they
hadn’t seen yet. For several moments it was tense for
everyone concerned as they waited to see whether Rivas was going to
go peacefully or if he was going to opt for a deadly shootout.
Finally, after realizing that there was no possible chance of
escaping with his life, Rivas relented. After being forced to
remove their shirts, each was handcuffed and placed inside separate
patrol cars and driven to the Teller County Jail.
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