Lon Horiuchi

Lon Horiuchi
Horiuchi during his tenure at the USMA
Born	Lon Tomohisa Horiuchi (1954-06-09) June 9, 1954 (age 62) Hawaii, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	U.S. Military Academy (1976)
Occupation	FBI HRT sniper
Organization	FBI Hostage Rescue Team  United States Army
Known for	Ruby Ridge, Waco controversies

Lon Tomohisa Horiuchi (born June 9, 1954) is the American FBI agent who shot Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge in 1992. An FBI HRT sniper and former US Army officer, he was involved in controversial deployments during the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and 1993 Waco siege. In 1997, Horiuchi was charged with manslaughter for the death of Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge, but the charges were later dropped.

Horiuchi was born on June 9, 1954 in Hawaii as the son of a U.S. Army officer. He later attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated in 1976. He served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. Afterwards he joined the FBI, and by 1999 had been an FBI agent for at least 15 years.

In 1992, while working at sniper position Sierra 4 for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at Ruby Ridge, Horiuchi shot and killed Vicki Weaver and also wounded her husband, Randy Weaver, and family friend Kevin Harris.

After his first shot hit and wounded Randy Weaver, Horiuchi fired a second shot at Kevin Harris, who was armed, some 20 seconds later as Harris was running into the Weaver home. The bullet fired at Harris, struck and killed Vicki Weaver through the doorway just beyond Harris, who was entering the home. Weaver was holding her 10-month-old child behind the door through which Harris was attempting to enter; the round also struck and wounded Harris.

Following the conclusion of the trial of Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris in 1993, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) created a "Ruby Ridge Task Force" to investigate allegations made by Weaver's defense attorney Gerry Spence. On June 10, 1994, the Task Force delivered its 542-page report to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility. The Report stated: "With regard to the two shots fired on August 22, we concluded that the first shot met the standard of 'objective reasonableness' the Constitution requires for the legal use of deadly force but that the second shot did not satisfy that standard."

The surviving members of the Weaver family received $3.1M in 1995 to settle their civil suit brought against the U.S. government for wrongful deaths of Sammy and Vicki Weaver. In the out-of-court settlement, the government did not admit any wrongdoing. Harris received $380,000 in 2000.