Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Siege at Ruby Ridge (Part II)

Incident at the "Y" in the trails

The USMS had not dropped the case, and on Friday, August 21, 1992, six marshals were sent to scout the area to determine suitable places away from the cabin to ambush and arrest Weaver. The marshals, dressed in military camouflage, were equipped with night-vision goggles and M16 rifles. Deputy U.S. Marshals (DUSMs) Art Roderick, Larry Cooper, and Bill Degan formed the reconnaissance team, while DUSMs David Hunt, Joseph Thomas, and Frank Norris formed an observation post (OP) team on the ridge north of the cabin.

At one point, Roderick threw two rocks at the Weaver cabin to test the reaction of the dogs. The action provoked the dogs; Weaver's friend Kevin Harris and Weaver's 14-year-old son Samuel (Sammy) emerged and followed the dog Striker to investigate. Harris and the younger Weaver said that they were hoping that the dog had noticed a game animal since the cabin was out of meat. The Recon team marshals (Roderick, Cooper, and Degan) initially retreated through the woods in radio contact with the OP team, but later took up hidden defensive positions.

Later, OP team marshals and the Weavers both claimed the Weaver dogs were alerted to the Recon team marshals in the woods after neighbors at the foot of the mountain started their pickup truck. The Recon team marshals retreated through the woods to the "Y" junction in the trails 500 yards (460 m) west of the cabin, out of sight of the cabin. Sammy Weaver and Kevin Harris followed the dog Striker on foot through the woods while Randy Weaver, also on foot, took a separate logging trail; Vicki, Sara, Rachel, and baby Elisheba remained at the cabin, at first appearing anxious to the OP team, but later appearing relaxed. Randy encountered the marshals at the "Y"; Roderick claimed to have yelled, "Back off! U.S. Marshal!" upon sighting Weaver and Cooper said he had shouted, "Stop! U.S. Marshal!". By their account, the dog and the boys came out of the woods about a minute later, and a firefight erupted between the marshals and Sammy Weaver and Harris.

A later ballistics report showed that nineteen rounds were fired in total during the firefight. Art Roderick was shown to have fired one shot from an M16A1, Bill Degan fired seven rounds from an M16 (while moving at least 21 feet (6.4 m)), Larry Cooper to have fired six rounds from a 9 mm Colt submachine gun, Sammy Weaver to have fired three rounds from a .223 Ruger Mini-14, and Harris fired two rounds from a .30-06 M1917 Enfield Rifle.

In the firefight, a shot or shots from DUSM Roderick killed the Weavers' dog, a yellow Labrador Retriever, at which time Sammy Weaver is reported to have returned fire at Roderick. After the federal agents began firing, Sammy Weaver was killed by a shot to the back while retreating, and DUSM Degan was shot and killed in self-defense by Harris.

The matter of who fired the shot that killed the youth Sammy Weaver was of critical concern in all investigations. At the time of the writing of the Ruby Ridge: Report ... (1996), the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government, chaired by Arlen Specter, noted that the government's position at trial was that Cooper had fired the shot that killed Sammy Weaver; however, at the time of writing, the Subcommittee had engaged further experts, and declined to draw a final conclusion. In the DOJ's Ruby Ridge Task Force (RRTF) report to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR, 1994), while noting that the marshals of the USMS "went to great lengths in preparing for their mission to avoid endangering the Weaver children," and that "[t]here is [i.e., was at the time of that report] no proof, and we do not conclude, that Cooper intentionally aimed the fatal shot at Sammy Weaver," they close by stating: