Story highlights

Restaurant says security video shows violence didn't start inside

Police say they've found hundreds of weapons at the scene of the shootout

Report: The Cossacks agree to cancel their annual party in Texas

Waco, Texas CNN  — 

Three days after bikers turned a Texas parking lot into a battlefield, workers washed blood off the pavement Wednesday as police prepared to leave the scene of carnage.

What happens next is anyone’s guess.

Will rival motorcycle clubs peacefully mourn the nine bikers killed in Sunday’s shootout at a Twin Peaks restaurant? Or will there be more violence, either against police or against other bikers in retaliation?

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said more trouble may come.

“Is this over? Most likely not,” he said Tuesday.

So far, investigators combing the crime scene have found more than 300 weapons, and they expect the numbers will go up.

It’s clear, Swanton said, that bikers scrambled to stash their weapons as law enforcement closed in.

Police have spotted weapons inside sacks of tortilla chips, stuffed between bags of flour, hidden on shelves, tucked away inside kitchen stoves and tossed on the floor inside the restaurant.

One person, he said, apparently tried to flush a handgun down the toilet. Inside a vehicle in the parking lot, investigators found an AK-47 and body armor.

With 170 suspects in custody, authorities have a complex investigation on their hands. All the suspects face charges of engaging in organized crime, and each one has bail set at $1 million.

But now there are signs that many of the bikers want peace. The Cossacks Motorcycle Club, one of the groups at Sunday’s melee, has agreed to cancel its 14th annual Mingus Blowout party, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The event was scheduled for this weekend in Palo Pinto County, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Waco.

So far, only one person has made bail. Jeff Battey, 40, bonded out of the McLennan County jail on Wednesday, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said.

How it all started

With seven bikers still hospitalized and 170 suspects in custody, authorities have a complex investigation on their hands.

The key question they’re facing: Who was responsible for killing nine people in the deadly brawl?

Investigators, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, are “doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this and find out exactly who these shooters were.”

“We are up to the task. … We have the facility, we have the manpower, we have the willpower. We will hold these (suspects) and we will do our best to keep peace in our community here,” he said.

More details are starting to emerge as to what exactly happened Sunday.

Swanton said some motorcycle groups had reserved the outdoor bar area at Twin Peaks when “an additional biker gang” showed up uninvited.

A quarrel in the parking lot soon followed, Swanton said, and it may have involved a tiff over a parking spot or someone having his foot run over.

The arrest warrants for some suspects offered more details: Members of the Cossacks were in the Twin Peaks parking lot when members of the rival Bandidos biker gang arrived.

But the ruckus didn’t stop there. Swanton said there were “crime scenes inside and outside” the restaurant, including in the bathroom, dining area and around the bar.

The assailants used all sorts of weapons – brass knuckles, guns, knives and chains. And when police responded, Swanton said, some bikers turned their weapons on them.

The waitress said she and other Twin Peaks workers hid in a refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

“What happened inside the restaurant was that people sought safety inside, where they assisted each other and came to the aid of patrons, staff and management,” the statement said.

Who was involved?

The nine men killed in the shootout ranged in age from 27 to 65, the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences said. Some of them were fathers. All of them died of gunshot wounds.

Families went through harrowing hours where they tried to find their loved ones and weren’t sure whether they’d survived, said Rocki Hughes, whose ex-husband, Jacob Lee Rhyne, was among those killed.

“We didn’t find out and it wasn’t confirmed until my kids had already seen pictures of their dad dead on the tailgate of a truck,” she said. They recognized him, she said, because of his large beard and the tattoos of his children’s names on his forearms.

Rhyne, 39, had been a member of the Cossacks for about six months. He went to the restaurant to make peace with the Bandidos, Hughes said.

Portraying all the bikers as violent, she said, simply isn’t fair.

“He didn’t believe in guns,” she said. “He got in many fights throughout his years, but he never needed a gun to protect himself.”

So why did he join the Cossacks?

“To be a part of something, I guess,” Hughes said. “That’s a question I’m still asking. … Our kids are broken up. He was an awesome father, and just as good as a friend, and I don’t understand it either.”

Bandidos vs. Cossacks: Was the Texas biker shootout over territory?

As for the 170 people locked up in the McLennan County Jail, each has $1 million bail on charges of engaging in organized crime. Police said some might later have capital murder charges filed against them.

There’s a retired cop among them; former San Antonio Police Detective Marty Lewis. There’s also a pharmacy tech, 65-year-old Lawrence Yager. His license has expired, perhaps due to retirement. He has no criminal history.

Sandra Lynch, aka “Drama,” was among those arrested. A member of the Los Pirados motorcycle club, she’s married to Michael Lynch, who also was arrested.

Sandra Lynch, aka “Drama,” was among those arrested. A member of the Los Pirados motorcycle club, she’s married to Michael Lynch, who also was arrested.

They’re grandparents who share a love for biking – and Twin Peaks.

Their son told CNN they’re not criminals or gang members. They were at the restaurant for a monthly meeting, nothing more.

“Everyone there is not a thug. My parents are not thugs,” he said. “I think this is injustice to have so many people in jail.” He would not give his name, saying he feared police retribution.

None of the defendants has had their day in court yet. Some of their families, reached by CNN, say the high bail is ridiculous and unfair.

The country’s most notorious biker gangs

CNN’s Kyung Lah reported from Waco. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet and Holly Yan reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Greg Botelho, Dave Alsup, Sara Sidner, Nick Valencia, Dana Ford, Eliott C. McLaughlin, AnneClaire Stapleton, Alison Kosik and Evan Perez contributed to this report.