January 15, 2000
Web posted at: 4:10 AM EST (0910 GMT)

WACO, Texas (CNN) -- A federal judge has named a British company to help determine if government agents shot at Branch Davidians at the end of a 51-day standoff. U.S. officials have maintained that no shots were fired by the agents.

On April 19, 1993, the FBI and a hostage rescue team used armored vehicles to insert gas and smash down walls at the Davidian compound that eventually caught fire outside Waco. Federal agents flying overhead recorded the assault using an infrared camera.

The infrared video shows a number of flashes that some experts have interpreted as agents shooting at the Davidians. Government officials have been unable to explain the flashes, other than to call them electronic anomalies.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, who is overseeing a wrongful-death lawsuit brought against the government by surviving Davidians, named Vector Data Research of England to conduct a test of the infrared system.

The test, to be conducted by mid-March, will use the same camera and plane used in April 1993. It will fly over an area where guns like those carried by the hostage-rescue team will be fired.

Attorneys for the Davidians believe the infrared camera will show the muzzle blasts as bursts of light like those seen on the April 19 video.

The location of the test has not been announced. However, Mike Caddell, lead attorney for the Davidians, said Fort Hood, 50 miles from Waco, is the most likely site.

Davidian cult leader David Koresh and about 80 of his followers died in the confrontation with federal agents.