It was just supposed to be a regular meeting of the Texas Council of Clubs and Independents, which bills itself as a motorcycle rights organization. That’s what Morgan English and her husband, William, expected when they arrived in Waco that Sunday in 2015.
At the time, William English was part of a small, now-defunct mom-and-pop motorcycle club called Distorted. Morgan says she drove with her husband to Waco from Brenham that day to hear an update on biker-related laws.
"We didn’t even take a motorcycle," she said. "Because it was supposed to rain that day."
As they walked up to Twin Peaks's front door, Morgan said she knew something was wrong.
In the parking lot, members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club were arriving from Dallas, looking for parking in the already- full motorcycle lot. An argument broke out between the Bandidos and a member of the rival Cossack Motorcycle Club.
Words quickly turned to fists.
"And that’s when the shooting started," Morgan said.
Morgan and her husband began running back to their car. As she rounded the corner, William pulled her back against the building.
"If he didn't stop me, I probably would have been shot too," Morgan said. "That's where all the people were getting shot.
Within minutes, nine bikers were dead and 20 sustained serious injuries. Ten years later, it’s still unclear who fired the first shot or why.
Waco Police officers were already on scene that day, prepared for crowd control. As the shooting stopped, officers moved in, telling everyone to put their hands up and get on the ground.
Officers slapped zip-tie cuffs on nearly 200 people's wrists before taking them to the Waco Convention Center for questioning — including Morgan.
"I’m just bawling because I don’t know what the hell is going on and I’ve never been in trouble like a day in my life with the law," she said.
Initially, the police began conducting a capital murder investigation, but officers say those plans changed when the McLennan County District Attorney arrived. DA Abel Reyna suggested arresting anyone with motorcycle club patches.
But when Reyna gave the order to arrest everyone, assistant police chief Robert Lanning disagreed. The police chief was out of town, but he called Lanning with the go-ahead to follow the district attorney’s instruction.
"It was a goat rodeo from the beginning," Brian Roberts said.
Roberts served as special prosecutor for four of the Twin Peaks cases. He works as a criminal defense attorney, but began his career as a prosecutor in Harris County.
According to Roberts, the decision to arrest everyone was the first mistake.
"There are many more witnesses, and many more people who are not actively involved in criminal conduct, who should have been interviewed properly," he said.
But, instead, Roberts said,
"They drafted fill-in-the-blanks search warrants — that I’ve never seen before and since," he said. "And essentially, (they) treated every person as a suspect."
The arrest warrant he’s talking about literally contains a blank line to write in the name of the person being arrested.
About 170 were arrested with those warrants for the charge of Engaging in Organized Crime. The identical warrants allege each arrested individual was a member of a “criminal street gang” AND “conspired to commit murder, capital murder or aggravated assault.”
The affidavit also states the person was wearing a patch on their vest identifying them as a member of a criminal street gang.
Morgan said she saw police begin to load people onto buses for transportation. Her husband was one of them and she asked not to be separated.
"So they grabbed me and put me on the bus too," she said.
She was arrested with the same fill-in-the-blank affidavit, which said she wore a club patch on her vest.
"I did not have this patch on my vest because I was not even a club member," Morgan said. "I was married to a club member."
Morgan and William were both charged with Engaging in Organized Crime and given bonds of $1 million each. They stayed in jail for two weeks until their bond was reduced.
Meanwhile, at Twin Peaks, police began to process the scene, rounding up weapons — guns, knives, brass knuckles and a chain.
"They took all the weapons and they just piled them into piles," said Paul Looney, defense attorney for six of the bikers.
To keep weapons secure, police placed many of them into the back of one of the police vehicles.
He said this was the second mistake police made that day.
"The evidence was all tainted by the fact that the officers handled these weapons without gloves to preserve prints or anything like that," Looney said.
This meant that even though police could trace a gun to its owner, they could not guarantee the owner was the last one to shoot it.
Months later, District Attorney Abel Reyna took the cases to a grand jury, who returned 155 indictments. Of those 155, only one person ever made it to trial.
In part two, we'll dive into that trial, the ongoing civil suits and the effects on those involved.
