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Randy Weaver, patriarch of a family that was involved in an 11-day confrontation between Idaho and federal agents 30 years ago that killed three people, has died at the age of 74.
His death was announced Thursday in a Facebook post by his daughter Sarah Weaver, who lives near Kalispel, Montana.
“I always love you, Dad,” was written on Sarah Weaver’s Facebook page, posted with a photo of the elderly Randy and smiling Sarah, along with January 3, 1948 and May 11, 2022.
The cause of death has not been announced, according to the Associated Press.
Randy Weaver holds a cabin door showing bullet holes fired in 1992 at his home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, a model on the left, during a testimony before the Capitol Hill Senate Judicial Subcommittee in Washington on September 6, 1995. (AP Photo / Joe Marquette, file)
On August 21, 1992, Randy Weaver, a self-identified white separatist, was involved in a shootout with six federal agents in Ruby Ridge. The dispute left Weaver’s wife Vicki and 14-year-old son Samuel killed by an FBI sniper during the 11-day standoff.
The confrontation was located in Idaho Panhandle, about 40 miles south of the Canadian border.
ARRESTS OF SHOOTING AT A DALAS CONCERT LEAVE 1 DEAD, 16 WOUNDED
The incident shocked the nation in 1992.
Randy Weaver moved his family to northern Idaho in the 1980s to escape what he saw as a corrupt world. Over time, federal agents began investigating the Army veteran for possible links to white racist and anti-government groups. Eventually, Weaver was suspected of selling two illegally cut rifles to a government informant.
White separatist Randy Weaver was sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington on September 6, 1995, before testifying before the Senate Judicial Subcommittee. (AP Photo / Joe Marquette, file)
The confrontation began when the US Marshall Service tried to arrest Weaver for failing to appear on firearms charges.
To avoid arrest, Weaver hid on his land for a year and a half with his family near Naples, Idaho.
On August 21, 1992, a team of marshals showed up at the property to find suitable places to ambush and arrest Weaver, encountering his friend Kevin Harris and Weaver’s 14-year-old son Samuel in the woods. A shootout broke out. US Deputy Marshal William Degan was also killed.
The next day, an FBI sniper shot Randy Weaver. As Weaver, Harris, and Sarah ran back to the house, the sniper fired a second bullet that went through Vicki Weaver’s head as she held the baby and wounded Harris in the chest.
During the siege, Sarah Weaver crawled around her mother’s blanket-covered body to fetch food and water for the survivors until the family surrendered on August 31, 1992.
Harris and Randy Weaver are arrested, and Weaver’s three daughters move to live with their mother’s family in Iowa.
Randy Weaver was sentenced to 18 months in prison on the original weapons charge, but was released after 16 months for good behavior. Harris was acquitted of all charges.
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Surviving members of the Weaver family have filed a lawsuit for wrongful death. The federal government awarded Randy Weaver a $ 100,000 deal and his three daughters $ 1 million each in 1995.
After Ruby Ridge, federal agents besieged the Brund Davidian complex in Waco, Texas. It ended violently 51 days later on April 19, 1993, when a fire destroyed the complex after an attack, killing 76 people.
Timothy McVeigh cited Ruby Ridge and Waco as motivators when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Since then, Ruby Ridge has been frequently quoted by police and patriots.
Randy Weaver, the site of the Ruby Ridge siege, visited the main FBI blockade outside the Freeman complex in Montana with the media on April 27, 1996 (AP Photo / Jim Mone, File)
Randy Weaver spoke to a reporter about his book on Tuesday, June 9, 1998, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (Rene Dietrich / The Messenger via AP, file)
Sarah Weaver lives near Kalispel, Montana, a city in northwestern state that is the gateway to Glacier National Park and more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Ruby Ridge.
Sarah Weaver said she was devastated every time someone committed a violent act in the name of Ruby Ridge. “It killed me on the inside,” she told the Associated Press in 2012 over the Oklahoma City bombing. “I knew what it was like to lose a family member in violence. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
After graduating from high school in Iowa, Sarah Weaver moved to the Kalispell area in 1996. Her sisters and father followed shortly thereafter.
She returned to Ruby Ridge, the land her family still owns. All that remains of the family’s humble home is the foundation, she said.
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Randy Weaver is survived by his wife Linda Gross, whom he married in 1999, and daughters Sarah, Rachel and Elisheba.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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