Anonymous Host

Three US Marshals dressed from head to toe in camouflage and carrying M16 rifles had been hiding in the surrounding woods as part of a reconnaissance team keeping watch over the property.

One of them shot Stryker after he revealed their location.

Samuel Weaver cried out, You've killed my dog, you son of a bitch.

As he was carrying a firearm, the 14-year-old returned fire.

A second US Marshal shot back in his direction, hitting Samuel in the arm.

Samuel began running up a hill back toward the family's house when he was shot again twice in the back and fell face down on the ground.

Meanwhile, Kevin had dived behind a tree stump for cover before firing his own gun at the marshals.

He hit and killed one of them.

Kevin Harris managed to flee back to the cabin.

Wails and despair could be heard from inside its walls as the family discovered that their only son and brother had been killed.

Nineteen rounds had been fired during the confrontation.

Three were shot by Samuel Weaver, two by Kevin Harris, and fourteen by the three US Marshals combined.

The Marshalls' story differed somewhat from the Weaver family's.

They had been at the property as part of a planned raid to arrest Randy Weaver, a white supremacist who'd been on the radar of multiple law enforcement agencies for years.

In 1985, a neighbor had accused him of threatening to kill then US President Ronald Reagan, the Governor of Idaho, and Pope John Paul II.

It was said that Randy was a member of the racist terror group Aryan Nations and that he had a large cache of firearms.

In 1986, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, known as the ATF, learnt of Randy Weaver after one of their informants met him at the World Aryan Congress, a convention where American neo-Nazis called for the creation of a new white and male-dominated homeland.

Randy met with the informant several times and suggested they form a group to fight what he called the Zionist-organized government.

This was his term for the United States government, referencing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews secretly run Western states.

The ATF later charged Randy Weaver with selling their undercover informant two shotguns with barrels that had been sawed off below the legal minimum length.