Amid a backdrop of steel barricades, a crowd of weary sheriff's deputies have surrounded the Waco, Texas courthouse for the beginning of trials in relation to the deadliest biker shootout in US history.
The violent incident under scrutiny is a bar-room shootout in Waco in May 2015 that left nine people dead and 20 injured from the Bandidos and Cossacks biker groups.
There were 177 bikers arrested in the wild shootout and 150 people were eventually charged over the incident, Nine News reported.
The heightened security around Waco courthouse last week is, in particular, for the trial of the alleged leader of the Bandidos biker gang, Christopher "Jake" Carrizal.
Although not directly involved in the Twin Peaks bar-room shootout in 2015, local police fear the trial of Dallas chapter president "Jake" Carrizal may ignite violent flare-ups among the Bandidos.
Carrizal, 35, is charged with directing criminal activity inciting a violent brawl at the restaurant in Waco on May 17, 2015.
If he is convicted, the maximum sentence would be life in prison.
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