Ex-Vice Cop Among Arrested Waco Bikers

Cops say they found guns in bags of tortilla chips
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 21, 2015 5:12 AM CDT
Ex-Vice Cop Among Arrested Waco Bikers
This booking photo provided by the McLennan County Sheriff's Office shows Martin Lewis, a retired San Antonio police detective.   (McLennan County Sheriff's Office via AP)

One of the 170 bikers arrested after Sunday's shootout in Waco, Texas, was arresting people himself until 11 years ago. Martin Lewis, 62, was a detective in the vice department in San Antonio until he retired in 2004, reports CNN. The department "primarily investigates prostitution, gambling, and liquor violations. At this point, we don't have info that he was ever assigned to infiltrate a gang," a police spokesman says. In Facebook postings, Lewis boasts about being a "1%er" and appears in photos wearing Bandidos patches, according to CNN. In other developments:

  • Waco police say they've now found 318 weapons at the crime scene and the number is expected to go up. The weapons, including an AK-47, 118 handguns, and 157 knives, have been "found in sacks of chips, stuffed between bags of flour, stuffed into the bench seating, hidden in shelves, thrown into trash cans, placed in the kitchen stoves, discarded on floors, and even so far as to attempt to flush a handgun down a commode," the department says in a Facebook post.

  • The AP has reviewed video footage from the Twin Peaks restaurant that shows most bikers, staff, and other patrons fled inside when the shooting started. Some bikers on the patio can be seen trying to direct people to safety, while inside, bikers can be seen running into the restaurant's bathroom and kitchen. Only one of the dozens of bikers on video can be seen firing a gun, the AP notes, although the video coverage doesn't include the parking lot, where most of the shooting happened.
  • There is at least one woman among the detained bikers: Sandra "Drama" Lynch, who's known for "organizing charity concerts for cancer patients, rescuing dogs, and fighting for motorcycle-friendly legislation," according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. Her co-director in a biker advocacy group tells the Tribune-Herald that the 53-year-old and her husband had "nothing to do with nothing" and were "arbitrarily" rounded up. "She's the mama," he says. "She's the room mother who takes care of all the MCs in Waco. If someone has cancer or gets in an accident, she's the one who helps put benefits together so they don't lose their houses."
  • Police spokesman Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, however, says the people now behind bars weren't exactly upstanding citizens, CNN reports. "Your law-abiding citizen doesn't throw firearms into a bag of tortilla chips," he says. "A law-abiding citizen isn't going to hide a firearm or a knife in between bags of flour." Swanton says it made him "sick to his stomach" to find out that an ex-cop was among those arrested.
  • As for the nine people killed, police say they were all from Texas and all members of outlaw biker gangs, though court records show that only five of them had criminal histories in the state, the AP reports.
(More Waco, Texas stories.)

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