‘FBI: True’: Agents Recall Witnessing Harrowing 1993 Waco Siege (Exclusive Clip)

Three decades after the deadly Waco siege, FBI: True is revisiting the fatal 1993 standoff between federal authorities and the Branch Davidian religious sect. In an exclusive clip from Wednesday night’s episode shared with PopCulture.com, retired FBI Special Agent Charlie Rasner, Jim McGee, a member of the FBI’s hostage rescue team, and veteran Austin police department crisis negotiator recall the moment when, after a 52-day siege, flames erupted in multiple locations.

“Then I see on the red-white corner a whisp of smoke,” McGee recalled to FBI veteran Special Agent Kristy Kottis. McGee soon realized that it wasn’t a single fire at the compound, but several, remembering how “another operator calls out that he sees a wisp of smoke. I can’t see that corner. He can’t see mine. The compound’s too big. So therefore, I know, ‘Ok, there’s gotta be two wisps of smoke. That means two fires have been set.’”

The fires came amid a 52-day siege that was prompted in 1993 as federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to serve a lawfully obtained federal search and arrest warrant on David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian religious sect. ATF agents were met with a barrage of gunfire in an event considered to be one of the most intense gun battle in American law enforcement history. On April 19, 1993, as the FBI Hostage Rescue Team moved ahead with a plan to breach the compound, those barricaded inside the buildings began to set them ablaze.

Rasner, one of the agents on the scene that day, said he had “a pretty unique perspective, because I was at an angle where I could see most of the structure.” He recalled “seeing puffs of smoke, puffs of smoke, puffs of smoke in three different places simultaneously along the building, and the next thing you know, with that wind,” the fires grew out of control.

“And we wanted to get out. We said, ‘We gotta go get those kids,’” Rasner said. “And we started to, but we could feel the rounds impacting the sandbags and hear them going off. We knew it was a death sentence to do that.”

“Waco: The Deadliest Siege,” which previously aired on Paramount+, is set to air on CBS at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 3 following NCIS spinoff NCIS: Sydney and Damon Wayans Jr.’s new game show, Raid the Cage. FBI True currently airs on CBS as part of the network’s strike-proof fall 2023 schedule, with episodes also available to stream on Paramount+.