| USA TODAY | - |
BEND,
Ore. - Several members of a self-styled militia maintained their 25-day
takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon on Wednesday despite
the killing of one of their co-leaders and the arrest of nine others,
including ringleader Ammon Bundy.
Three weeks after a group of armed protestors occupied a wildlife
refuge in Oregon, the FBI and Oregon State Police moved in to arrest
them.
VPC
Arizona resident Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, 56, the soft-spoken but defiant co-leader of the protest group, was shot and killed during an encounter Tuesday afternoon with the FBI and Oregon State Police at a roadblock about 20 miles north of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Ore.
His death was confirmed by his family and reported by The Oregonian and NBC News.
Ryan Bundy, brother of the ringleader, Ammon Bundy, received a minor gunshot wound in the confrontation that occurred about 4:30 p.m. along U.S. 395, according to The Oregonian. He was treated and released from a local hospital and taken into FBI custody.
The shooting took place after FBI and state police stopped the group's two-car caravan as they were headed to a community meeting in the town of John Day. Several other protesters, who did not make the trip, remained behind at the compound and continued to defy authorities, even after the shooting.
One of them, Jason Patrick, said he has been speaking with an FBI negotiator during the night who told him "they just want to get everybody off the refuge."
"It's hard to decide what to do," he said in a phone interview. Patrick called Finicum's death "disheartening" and described the incident at the roadblock as a "violent and coercive force."
Patrick said from inside the compound, where he was cooking eggs Wednesday morning, he could see a number of law enforcement officers in a convoy of armored vehicles.
"Sounds like the definition of peaceful resolution is either forcefully kidnapping me or death," he said. "A peaceful resolution is not dead people."
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown asked for “patience as officials continue pursuit of a swift and peaceful resolution.”
Early Wednesday, the FBI and Oregon State Police established a series of checkpoints along key routes into and out of the refuge. The agencies said in a statement that the containment was to "better ensure the safety of community members." They said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution.
Later, as they tightened their perimeter around the compound and appeared to be preparing for additional action, they advised reporters to leave the immediate area for their own safety.
According to the statement, only Harney County ranchers who own property in specific areas and show identification and be allowed to pass.
Thornton called the arrests "a dirty trick" by law enforcement.
Those arrested include the Bundy brothers, Ryan 43, of Bunkerville, Nev., and Ammon, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, along with Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville; Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont. Also arrested, at separate locations in Burns, Ore., near the refuge, were Pete Santilli, host of a neoconservative online radio, and Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz.
An eighth person, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, was arrested after turning himself into police in Peoria, Ariz.
Those arrested were charged with a federal felony count of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats.
Bundy, head of an anti-government group, had been holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since Jan. 2, when him and his followers seized its headquarters south of Burns as part of a long-running dispute over public land use in the West.
Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.
"They do no want to let go of this," said Finicum, author of an apocalyptic novel, Only By Blood and Suffering.
"They cannot leave it here, and we do not intend to give it back," he said, speaking to the media wearing a cowboy hat, glasses and gunbelt.
In an interview earlier this month with NBC, Finicum was asked if he would rather die than go to prison over the Oregon standoff. "I have no intention of spending any of my days in a concrete box," he said. "There are things more important than your life, and freedom is one of them. ... I'm prepared to defend freedom."
NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, quoting unidentified sources, says Finicum was shot after stepping from a vehicle and brandishing a weapon. Williams reported there were nine people in two vehicles that were stopped at a roadblock. The vehicle in which Finicum was riding sped off from the roadblock but quickly ran into a snowbank. Not all occupants of the vehicles were arrested, Williams reported.
Finicum's ex-wife, Kelly Whatcott, said she learned from their children that he was shot and killed Tuesday. "He did not mean any harm to anyone," Whatcott said in a phone interview. "He believed fiercely in freedom. I know he carried around a holster and a gun, but he's a cowboy."
Finicum's daughter, Arianna Finicum Brown, told The Oregonian her father was "a good, good man, through and through." She said he would "never ever want to hurt somebody, but he does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved."
The confrontation came amid increasing calls for law enforcement to take action against Bundy for the illegal occupation of the wildlife refuge. They previously had taken a hands-off approach, reflecting lessons learned during bloody standoffs at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, during the 1990s, the AP reported.
Many residents of Harney County, where the refuge is located, have been among those demanding Bundy leave. Many sympathize with his criticism of federal land management policies of public lands but opposed the refuge takeover. They feared violence could erupt.
"I am pleased that the FBI has listened to the concerns of the local community and responded to the illegal activity occurring in Harney County by outside extremists," Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a statement. "I hope that the remaining individuals occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will peacefully surrender."
Stanglin reported from Arlington, Va. Contributing: (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Arizona Republic
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