A federal marshal involved in the gunfight that killed white separatist Randy Weaver's 14-year-old son and another marshal say they never fired at the boy and that Weaver himself is responsible for the death.
"I did not fire at Samuel Weaver," Deputy U.S. Marshal Larry Cooper said in testimony prepared for a Senate subcommittee hearing Friday. "I strongly believe that none of the rounds that I fired . . . struck Samuel Weaver, because I saw him running up the right fork . . . after I fired my second, and last, three-round burst.""If Samuel Weaver was struck by other gunfire, we did not have knowledge of that," Cooper said.
Weaver has said he believed that Cooper deliberately shot his son in the exchange of gunfire at Weaver's mountainside homestead at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, on Aug. 21, 1992.
Without admitting wrongdoing, the government recently agreed to pay Weaver and his surviving children $3.1 million for the killing of his wife, Vicki, and his son.
At a hearing on Thursday, senators accused FBI snipers of obscuring the truth about events leading up to the killing of Vicki Weaver.
The eight FBI sharpshooters, who also were at Ruby Ridge during the tragedy, testified that they heard a woman's screams, then silence, after a member of their team fired the shot that killed Vicki Weaver, 43.
A day earlier, Aug. 21, members of Weaver's family stumbled upon the marshals as they were checking out his homestead in anticipation of a military-style operation to arrest him. Sam Weaver and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed in the shootout, which involved three marshals, the Weavers and a friend.
Weaver was acquitted in 1993 on charges of murdering Degan.
"I suspect Randall Weaver recognizes in his heart that he is responsible for Samuel Weaver's death," Cooper said in his testimony. "That is a tragedy, and a terrible cross for Randall Weaver to bear."
After federal prosecutors had Weaver indicted in March 1992 on a charge of selling two sawed-off shotguns, the U.S. Marshals Service was given the task of arresting him. Henry Hudson, the former head of the agency, testified on Tuesday that the marshals had a plan to lure Weaver away from the mountainside without a confrontation, but a prosecutor rejected it.
At Thursday's hearing, with the snipers lined up in front of them, Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Sen. Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin, the panel's senior Democrat, questioned whether the shot that killed Vicki Weaver should have been fired at all.
Specter also accused the snipers of "giving erroneous information to a lot of people" by saying there was a threat of immediate harm from the Weavers sufficient to justify shooting Vicki Weaver as she stood behind the door of the family's cabin.
An FBI helicopter was flying nearby and "the threat was heightened with the individuals inside the cabin," sharpshooter Dale Monroe testified. He said Weaver and family friend Kevin Harris could have fired from the protection of the cabin.
"I believe" the shot was justified "as long as the helicopter is airborne and contains individuals that could be harmed," said Monroe.
Those individuals, FBI pilot Frank Costanza and Deputy U.S. Marshal Duke Smith, were expected to testify later.
Specter noted on Thursday that the FBI sniper who killed Vicki Weaver, Lon Horiuchi, fired the shot as Randy Weaver and Harris were fleeing into the cabin.
The snipers defended firing the shot, saying they had feared members of the Weaver family would shoot at the helicopter flying overhead.
In a departure from FBI policy, rules of engagement were rewritten for the Ruby Ridge standoff to say that snipers "could and should" fire at any armed adult male.
Sniper Mark Tilton said that as part of their briefing before they went up the mountain, the sharpshooters were told that Vicki Weaver was "just as dangerous" as her husband.