大卫·考雷什（David Koresh，1959年8月17日－1993年4月19日）是大卫教教派的领袖，认为自己是其最终先知。

考雷什成为基督复临安息日会基督徒。他之后与乔治·罗登争夺领袖地位，直到罗登被判入狱为止。考雷什随后遭到指控引诱一名13岁女孩。考雷什在卡梅尔庄园以军事方式统治大卫教派。考雷什利用一切机会宣扬暴力，要求教徒们做好心理和生理上的准备，等待世界末日的到来。为了应付所谓的战时需要，考雷什在庄园里修筑了地下掩体，非法购买AK47步枪、冲锋鎗、机关枪、手榴弹。

1992年5月，麦克伦县副局长丹尼尔·文伯格致电美国研究枪炮及爆裂物局（ATF）称当地快递公司发现非法包裹。同年9月，正式的调查开始。

David Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell; August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was the American leader of the Branch Davidians religious sect, believing himself to be its final prophet.

Coming from a dysfunctional family background, Koresh claimed to become a Christian in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, before joining a splinter group, based at the Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, which took the name Branch Davidians. Here he competed for dominance with another leader named George Roden, until Roden was jailed for murdering another rival. Koresh was then accused of seducing a 13-year-old girl, apparently with her parents’ consent, a relationship that he sanctified as a ‘spiritual marriage’. But it was the serving of arrest and search warrants by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as part of an investigation into illegal possession of firearms and explosives that provoked the historic 1993 raid on the center. Four ATF agents and six Davidians were killed during the initial two-hour firefight, both sides claiming the other side fired first. The subsequent siege by the FBI ended with the burning of the center, where Koresh and 79 others were found dead after the fire.