American Standoff: Ruby Ridge and America’s longest-running police siege.

For The New York Times / Retro Report

When armed suspects stand off against the law today, one event still casts a shadow on both sides of the police line: the siege at Ruby Ridge.

In 1992, federal agents surrounded the remote Idaho cabin of fugitive Randy Weaver, wanted for selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns to an informant. By the time Weaver surrendered 11 days later, his wife, 14-year-old son and a federal agent were dead. The national outcry that followed continues to shape how standoffs are handled across the country even today.

For this The New York Times’ Retro Report documentary, I interviewed a surviving member of the Weaver family and one of the participating FBI sharpshooters to reconstruct the siege. The project also took me to the scene of ongoing standoff Texas, where I conducted my first ever interview with armed, anti-government militants.

Watch on nytimes.com