US biker shoot-out: 192 face charges in Waco, Texas

Washington

A police spokesman said yesterday that 192 people were being charged in the shootout among rival motorcycle gangs at a busy shopping plaza in the Central Texas city of Waco on Sunday that left at least nine bikers dead and 18 others wounded.

 The individuals, who were detained after the shootout, will face charges of engaging in organised crime over the gunfire that broke out at the Central Texas Marketplace, in south Waco just off Interstate 35, Sergeant W. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police Department spokesman, said on Twitter.

 Twin Peaks, the restaurant where members of the motorcycle clubs had gathered, will be closed at least for a week as part of an investigation by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Swanton said.

 The gunfire erupted about 12:15 p.m. on Sunday outside the restaurant, and the fight spilled into the parking lot, initially involving just fists and feet, but escalating quickly to chains, knives, clubs and firearms.

 Waco officers were already at the scene when the confrontation unfolded because they had anticipated problems as hundreds of bikers from at least five groups gathered at the shopping plaza.

 “There were multiple people on the scene firing weapons at each other,” Swanton said. “They then turned on our officers. Our officers returned gunfire, wounding and possibly killing several.”

Eight members of motorcycle clubs were killed at the scene and another died at a hospital. The injured were taken to hospitals with gunshot and stab wounds.