Even though officers were positioned on-scene prior to the initial gunshots due to the alarming presence of at least five biker gangs outside of a Twin Peaks restaurant, police are still not entirely sure what happened to provoke the chaos that resulted in the deaths of nine individuals.
Eighteen others were injured during the fighting that involved chains, knives, clubs and firearms.
"It's like the Wild West," McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told the Dallas Morning News. "These guys become very violent to each other very quickly over nothing."
On Monday, 170 bikers were arrested on charges of engaging in organized crime, and each person is being held on a set bail of $1 million at McLennan County Jail.
(See the mugshots here).
Many questions are still lingering about the shots fired that killed nine individuals. Those who lost their lives are Richard Vincent Kirshner Jr., 47; Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39; Wayne Lee Campbell, 43; Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44; Charles Wayne Russell, 46; Jesus Delgado Rodriguez, 65; Richard Matthew Jordan II, 31; Manuel Issac Rodriguez, 40; and Matthew Mark Smith, 27.
Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton told reporters that officers fired shots in order to protect themselves and nearby civilians and information will not be released as to who is responsible for the killings until the autopsy reports match the bullets with the guns used during the brawl.
Preliminary autopsies say most of the men were wounded in either the head or torso, NBC News reported.
Swanton said that authorities do have an inkling about the order of events and that things are starting to make sense.
Investigators suggested that multiple gangs arranged to meet up, and most likely, a gang that wasn't invited came anyway.
"When those individuals showed up, there was a disturbance in the parking lot," Swanton said.
The fight might have started from a dispute over a parking space and might also have do to with "someone having their foot run over," he added.
The nine bikers who died were all members of two rival gangs - the Bandidos and the Cossacks - and they have been arguing over turf for quite a while.
This may not be the end of the violence. Police have been warned that the two gangs have been ordered to arm themselves and head to Texas, CNN reported.
"We have been getting reports throughout the day that bikers from out of state are headed this way," Swanton told CBS. "We would encourage them not to, because we have plenty of space in our county jail to put them there."
