Randy Weaver: Siege at Ruby Ridge

Randy Weaver's account of the incident comes from a statement he later dictated to his daughter Sara:

"The dogs started barking like they always do when strangers walk up the driveway. Randy, Kevin, and Sam ran out to the rock with their weapons. Randy was carrying a double barrel 12-gauge shotgun. Kevin was carrying a 30-06 bolt-action rifle. Sam was carrying a 223 mini 14. When they got to the rock, our yellow dog Striker was down at the pump house barking up into the woods. Randy, Kevin and Sam went down to investigate. Sam said he heard something, or someone running west, so they followed. Sam and Kevin followed Striker. Randy dropped down on the old logging road headed west. "I (Randy Weaver) didn't have any idea what they were chasing, but I was hoping it was a deer."

"When I reached the first fork in the logging road, a very well camouflaged person yelled 'freeze RANDY,' and I immediately said 'f—k you,' and retreated toward home 80-100 feet. I realized [sic] immediately [sic] that we had run smack into a ZOG/NEW WORLD ORDER ambush. I stopped to see if I was being followed.

"About that time I heard a gun shot and Striker [the dog] yelped. Then I heard two more shots and Striker stopped yelping. I started yelling for Sam and Kevin to return home, and that they had shot Striker. I also fired my shotgun once into the air to draw attention to myself praying that would help. I replaced the empty shell with a new one, jamming the shotgun. I drew my .9mm handgun and fired 3-4 rounds up into the air and I yelled again for Sam to return home. Sam responded 'I'm coming dad!' I then walked backwards up the hill toward home yelling to Sam and Kevin to come home. All the while I heard many shots ringing out from the direction of the ambush.

The account by Kevin Harris also comes from a statement he later dictated to Sara:

"Me (Kevin Harris) and Sam followed Striker through the woods until we came out on the road that forks off the one Randy was on. Striker reached the corner first, then Sam, and then me. A camouflaged [sic] person was in the road and he shot Striker. Sam yelled 'You shot Striker, you son of a bitch!' And they pointed a gun at Sam. Sam opened [sic] fire. I took cover behind a stump and Sam headed up the road toward home. It appeared [sic] as though Sam had been wounded in the right arm. The men were still shooting at Sam, so I shot one of the sons of bitches. After they killed Sam one of the Fed's jumped out of the woods and for the first time declared he was a federal marshal. The Fed's then grabbed their wounded and left. I then headed home up the road and spotted Sam's body laying in the road without a doubt shot in the back."

In a separate statement later given to the FBI, Harris said that he raised his rifle and fired at Degan after he saw Sammy had been shot. Harris then heard Degan call out that he had been hit. Harris claimed that after he fired at Degan, the shooting came to a halt for a few seconds before he heard another shot. Sammy "yelped," then was silent. Harris said he fired one more shot in front of a camouflaged man "to scare him." Harris remained behind the stump "approximately ten more minutes," when he heard "the sound of a vehicle down the hill." He then retreated to the Weaver house. About 15 minutes later, Randy and Vicki Weaver, along with Harris, retrieved the body of Sammy Weaver.