At 11:45 AM, several Kiowa OH-58D army helicopters arrived and began firing at the safehouse, destroying a large portion of the building with machine gun rounds and rockets. Nevertheless, the task force continued to receive heavy gunfire from the house's occupants, who also lobbed grenades from the roof. Unable to neutralize the defenders, the task force initially considered using Apache helicopters to destroy the safehouse, but ruled it out due to concerns over potential civilian casualties.