Investigators have found more than 300 weapons — including an AK-47 — at the scene of the Texas biker war in which nine gang members died, police said Wednesday.
So far.
Waco police Sgt. Patrick Swanton said Wednesday that the Twin Peaks restaurant, where at least five biker gangs threw down Sunday in an apocalyptic battle, was littered with hundreds of weapons — having found 318 "and still counting."
The breakdown as of Wednesday evening:
- 1 AK-47 assault-style rifle
- 118 handguns
- 157 knives
- 43 other weapons, primarily clubs, brass knuckles and chains with padlocks to be used as bludgeons
- Various body armor
"We do expect the numbers to continue to rise," Swanton said.
The weapons appeared to have been discarded or hidden in haste throughout the restaurant when officers arrived Sunday, Swanton said. Some were found in sacks of potato chips or stuffed between bags of flour and into bench seats, hidden in shelves, thrown into trash cans, placed in the kitchen stoves and simply left on the floor, he said.
It appeared that there was at least one attempt to flush a handgun down a toilet.
The AK-47 was found in a vehicle in the parking lot, he said.
At least 170 people whom police described as gang members were arrested — many of them from two major gangs, the Bandidos and the Cossacks. Most were held on $1 million bond after what Swanton called the worst crime scene he'd ever run across.
Police harshly criticized the restaurant's management, saying it never cooperated with attempts to rid it of the gangs. Twin Peaks' national office revoked the restaurant's franchise.
Even though Swanton said dozens of weapons were found inside the restaurant, the local franchisee insisted in a statement late Wednesday that "no violence started inside the restaurant."
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