[ THE WACO TRAGEDY: 10 YEARS LATER ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A model of the Branch Davidian compound is displayed in the visitors center near Waco, Texas, on the site where the compound once stood before burning to the ground.
Koresh’s former wife For Kaneohe resident Dana Okimoto, today's 10th anniversary of the federal raid on the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, is a time of personal memories and mourning.
recalls regaining senses
She and her two sons returned
12 ex-isle residents died in raid
to Hawaii before the FBI raidBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com"Those were my friends, I knew all those people," said Okimoto. "I just got hit with sadness more than I had in previous years. I think I will always be sad at this time of year."
Okimoto was with the Davidian group for more than six years, and was one of 20 wives of cult leader and self-proclaimed prophet David Koresh. Her sons are two of Koresh's four surviving children.
She was one of several Hawaii residents who followed Koresh after hearing him preach here in 1986 at a Kaimuki church. She left the cult and brought her sons home to Hawaii in 1992, months before the FBI raid and fire at the Waco compound on April 19, 1993 that left Koresh and more than 70 of his followers dead.
Okimoto and son Skye, 14, were reunited with several surviving Davidian children at a February gathering in New York that was shown on ABC's Primetime Live show Thursday. Koresh released several children from the compound during the 51-day siege that followed a bungled Feb. 28, 1993 raid in which four federal agents and six Davidians died in a shootout.
Okimoto is a psychiatric nurse at Hawaii State Hospital, and was married last year to Roy Kiyabu, a cook.
She kept a low profile at the time of the raid, but feels her experience is not something to hide. "That is just the facts of our history, the way it is in our house. It's not a big shocking story. Skye was three when we left and Scooter was 10 months. I give my parents (Don and Jean Okimoto) credit. They raised me to be someone who thinks and, in the end, my brain did kick in again."
LEFT PHOTO: COURTESY OF KITV NEWS4; RIGHT: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dana Okimoto, left, a Hawaii resident and former Branch Davidian member, remembers her friends and David Koresh. Branch Davidian leader Koresh, right, in a 1987 police photo after a gun battle. He died in the April 19, 1993, Waco fire.
She was attending University of Hawaii School of Nursing in 1993, and was called by a mainland friend, the mother of another Koresh son, on the day of the shootout.
"I was driving to school and kept waiting for news of survivors. When they showed footage of David, Skye said 'That's my daddy.' That's how my grandmother found out. Skye was asking me 'Is my daddy dead?' 'So my daddy was shot and burned?'"
She consulted with school officials when Skye entered kindergarten, but the effects of the Davidian experience surfaced three years later. "I was in the hospital after a car accident. He kept asking 'Is my mommy going to die?' That was when he started acting out in school. That's when we started family counseling.
"Skye is growing up to be such a wonderful person. He is a freshman at Castle High School."
Koresh went by his given name, Vernon Howell, when he came to Hawaii and an acquaintance told her he had met a prophet. "That was interesting to me as a Seventh-day Adventist. I met David when I was 20. I was young and idealistic, I thought of the world as very black and white, either true or not. I was pretty much at a crossroads and a vulnerable point.
"Along came David talking about the end days. At church I grew up with stories of children choosing Jesus over their family. I was primed to hear something like that and respond to it.
"The message evolved as the years went by and he evolved from a messenger into something more. While he never said he was God, he started to imply that he was the modern, anti-typical David or Messiah.
"I remember walking out of a study, when everyone was saying 'Wow,' and I was saying 'Yeah, right.' I didn't speak but I remember being shocked that I would think that."
Her break came while she and the children lived in a Davidian commune in California and she was attending college, encouraged by Koresh to continue her nursing education. Skye had broken his arm, and when she took him to the hospital, Koresh called from Texas and scolded her for doing so. "I got mad back. That started the thought process: I don't want to do this anymore. Not only do I not believe, but I don't want to, which leads me to 'Why am I here?'
"I knew if I stay, we die. I just knew it, I couldn't tell you how. His kids were supposed to live and become living witnesses to his messages. If I stay, and I don't believe and we die, that's just stupid and I'm not stupid."
Okimoto said she still believes in God, but does not attend church. "I'm closest to Him when we hike in the Koolaus."
"Yes, what happened in Waco was a tragedy but those who are still here, are living our lives. I feel we are thriving now. I am going forward and see nothing but possibilities.
"If you ask, would I do it again? I would because I live today knowing the time, place and manner of what would have been my death. I have no reason to complain about anything. I'm just grateful to be alive."
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Twelve former Hawaii residents were among the 79 people who died in the FBI raid on the Waco compound of the Branch Davidian cult 10 years ago. Two others with local ties were convicted in the shooting deaths of federal agents. 12 ex-isle residents died
in FBI raid on Waco cultBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThe local victims met cult leader David Koresh when he was in Hawaii and attended the Diamond Head Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kaimuki. They died with the self-proclaimed messiah in the April 19, 1993 raid and fire that ended a 51-day siege.
Kevin Whitecliff and Paul Fatta, who were recruited by Koresh in Hawaii, were among 11 cult members sentenced to federal prison on manslaughter and firearms charges from a Feb. 28, 1993 gunfight at the compound. Four agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and six Davidians, were killed in the initial raid that set off the federal siege.
Former island residents who died in the raid and fire were:
>> Mark Wendel, former golf course groundskeeper, and his wife, Jaydean Cornwell Wendel, former Honolulu Police Department officer. Their three children survived.>> Scott Sonobe, a groundskeeper, and his wife Floracita Rivera Sonobe, not a member of the cult. Their two children survived.
>> Neil and Margarida Vaega, who ran a Kailua bakery. Their daughter survived and lives in Hawaii.
>> Steve Schneider, who attended the University of Hawaii, and his wife, Judy Schneider.
>> Jeff Little, who attended the University of Hawaii and became a computer programmer in California.
>> Sherry Lynn Jewell. Her daughter survived.
>> Gregory A. Sommers.
>> Peter Hippsman.
