Ruby Ridge

Federal agents surrounded an Idaho family's cabin over a minor firearms violation — and an FBI sniper ended up killing the mother while she held her infant daughter, a death the government later paid $3.1 million to settle.

The Ruby Ridge standoff was an 11-day 1992 confrontation between federal agents and the Weaver family at their remote Idaho cabin, beginning with an attempted arrest over a minor firearms charge and escalating into gunfire that killed Weaver's teenage son, his wife Vicki, and a federal marshal. The government later paid the Weaver family a $3.1 million settlement, and the incident, along with the related Waco siege, directly motivated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

✓documented

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Quick facts

→The standoff began in August 1992 when federal marshals attempted to arrest Randy Weaver on a firearms charge stemming from an earlier ATF investigation, resulting in a shootout that killed Weaver's 14-year-old son Samuel and a U.S. Marshal.
→During the subsequent 11-day siege, an FBI sniper shot and killed Weaver's wife Vicki while she stood in the cabin doorway holding their infant daughter, a shooting later found to have violated standard FBI use-of-force protocols.
→The federal government settled a subsequent civil lawsuit with the Weaver family for $3.1 million, and an internal Justice Department review found the FBI's rules of engagement during the standoff were unconstitutional.
→The incident, along with the related Waco siege less than a year later, directly motivated Timothy McVeigh's 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which he explicitly cited as retaliation for the federal government's handling of both events.

Entities on file

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Randy Weaver (person)

Idaho man whose 1992 arrest attempt on a firearms charge triggered the 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff, during which his wife and son were killed.

→ was the subject of the arrest attempt that triggered → Ruby Ridge✓documented

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Ruby Ridge (event)

11-day 1992 standoff between federal agents and the Weaver family in Idaho; an FBI sniper's killing of Vicki Weaver was later found to violate constitutional rules of engagement.

→ directly influenced the anti-government sentiment surrounding → Waco Siege✓documented

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