Cultist Ignores Vow to Surrender : Violence: Koresh said on radio broadcast he and his followers would leave, but by nightfall the standoff continued. Hospitals are warned to expect casualties.

A heavily armed cult leader who has held federal agents at bay for three days promised to surrender himself and scores of followers Tuesday, but the time set for their capitulation came and went without any break in the increasingly tense standoff.

Throughout the day, there were intimations of a pending end to the conflict between David Koresh, his followers and as many as 400 federal agents gathered at the cult’s 77-acre compound 10 miles from Waco, in central Texas.

Military transport vehicles, ambulances and--most optimistically--school buses designated to take out surviving cult members--crept close to the besieged headquarters of the Branch Davidians. Hospital officials in Waco were warned to expect casualties. Reporters witnessing the conflict were moved to positions three miles from the compound.

In a 58-minute audio tape delivered to Dallas radio station KRLD at midday, Koresh promised to leave the premises without engaging in further bloodshed.

“I, David Koresh, agree upon the broadcast of this tape to come out peacefully with all the people. Immediately,” the tape said. But it was a promise that Koresh, 33, would not keep.

By nightfall, Koresh was maintaining his silence inside the compound, and there was no firm indication of the conditions of those living with him within the walls.

As they have since the siege began on Sunday, cult followers continued to leave the compound in fits and starts. Early Tuesday, eight children and two women were released, bringing with them the Koresh audio tape that was later played on KRLD and five other stations.

The women were charged with conspiracy to murder federal agents, which carries a possible death sentence, U.S. Atty. Ron Ederer said. They were identified as Margaret Lawson, 75, and Catherine Mattson, 77.

Later in the evening, there was a flurry of activity as a dozen federal vehicles left the cult’s property. But a McClellan County justice of the peace who had been called to the site by authorities said that no others had been released and the stalemate continued.

“I can just say that they are set up to stay there tonight like they have for the last two nights,” said Justice of the Peace David Pareya.

The daytime release brought the number of people who have left the compound since the siege began to 20--18 children and the two women.

The standoff began when federal agents bearing search warrants stormed onto the property hoping to seize a reported cache of automatic weapons. Instead, they came under a 45-minute barrage of gunfire, including bullets up to a half-inch in diameter and five inches long. Four federal agents were killed, and another 16 wounded. Another skirmish later Sunday led to the death of at least one cult member.

In a phone interview with CNN Sunday night, the cult leader said a child was dead inside the compound, and several others, including Koresh himself, were wounded.

But on Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that children released from the compound Sunday and Monday had told authorities that seven cult members were killed in the initial assault. There was no adult confirmation of the children’s account.

Federal agents, the paper said, believed they had killed as many as 15 members.

On the audio tape aired Tuesday, Koresh’s voice was strong and preacherly. There was no indication when the bulk of the tape was made, but its introduction was clearly written at midday Tuesday.

“We’ve made an agreement with the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agent that if I was allowed national coverage . . . all of the people here at the facility here would give ourselves out to you, give ourselves over to the world. This is what I promised and this is what I’ll keep,” Koresh said.

Sometimes rambling, and taking considerable time to explain his religious beliefs, Koresh intimated that the final outcome would not necessarily be peaceful.

“I’m sure you are aware of the very serious thing we are in right now,” he said. “Should I be scared? Should I be concerned? . . . I am really concerned about the lives of my brethren here and even more importantly about all those in this world.”

At one point, he identified himself as the “Lamb of God” and said the role of the Lamb was to fight God’s enemies.

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” he added.

“It’s kind of like people always like to build sepulchers of the dead prophets . . . and they hate and kill the living prophets. I always wondered why that is.”

A McClellan County sheriff’s deputy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that officials initially thought they had an agreement with the group to emerge peacefully at about 11 a.m. CST. When they failed to materialize, officials believed the group would come out at about 1:30 p.m., when the Koresh tape was broadcast. Neither came to pass.

“The best thing you could hope for are three buses coming out (full of survivors) and the worst you could hope for is a lot of white smoke coming out of that compound,” the deputy said, then spoke of the fears of law enforcement officials that a new round of fighting could result.

“If you see an Apache helicopter,” he said, “look out.”

The FBI took control of the crisis Tuesday, replacing supervisors from the ATF who initiated the assault on the compound Sunday morning. The change in command occurred because the deaths of the ATF agents constituted a federal crime over which the FBI has jurisdiction.

FBI agents set up a command post at the Texas State Technical College, a few miles from the religious sect’s compound, and moved about in blue federal flak jackets. Students at the college were ordered off the premises Tuesday afternoon.

The school is located on a former airfield, and federal officials were congregating near two large hangars, well out of sight of reporters attempting to monitor their activities.

Indications that the siege could be coming to an end were obvious early Tuesday.

The first sign of a potential end to the stalemate came at 10:45 a.m., when three ambulances with sirens blaring sped down Farm-to-Market Road 2491, which runs in front of the compound. Television trucks which had been lining the roadway were ordered away from the scene.

A short time later, two Bradley fighting vehicles, one military Humvee and three tank carriers--empty of their cargo--moved toward the compound, and ambulances lined up head-to-toe down the roadway.

At 1:30 p.m., as the broadcast of Koresh’s tape began, federal officials sent the three buses to the compound in apparent anticipation that the cult members would give themselves up. By Tuesday evening, they still had no passengers.

Preparations for some sort of closure to the conflict were also under way at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, where most of the dead and injured ATF agents were brought when the clash began Sunday morning.

Federal agents, with handguns and semiautomatics hanging from their belts, guarded the front of the hospital Tuesday morning, taking up sniper positions on the roof of the building. A half dozen agents blocked the entrances to the medical center.

Anecdotal evidence of Koresh’s instability also mounted Tuesday, as members of a separate religious sect released a letter they had received from the now-besieged cult leader in 1986.

In it, Koresh chillingly foretold his own death amid a fearsome, bloody struggle.

“I am the Son of God,” the letter said. “You do not know me nor my name. I have been raised up from the north and my travels are from the rising of the sun.

” . . . The young men will abuse my kindness. They will take my life, but I will arise and take theirs forever more. You ministers will lament your foolishness. Your lost flock will tear you to pieces.”

The letter concludes with the words: “Prepare to meet thy God.”

The recipients of the letter, a Waco religious group known as the Davidians Seventh-Day Adventists, have no formal connection with Koresh’s Branch Davidians. Officials of the Davidians said they believe Koresh is trying to fulfill his own predictions.

The letter was not formally signed, but was initialed “VWH Jezreel.” At the time the letter was sent, Koresh was known by his given name, Vernon Howell. The Davidians said “Jezreel” refers to a prophet.

“What he’s saying here (in the letter) is what he’s playing out there,” said Noel McCallum, of the Davidians group. “This is from 1986 and he has had a long time to think this out in his mind. This is strong language and it could mean that if he is to fulfill this, his life will have to be taken.”

Times staff writers Stephen Braun in Waco and Cathleen Decker in Los Angeles contributed to this story.