FBI video shows shooting of militant

Four people remain holed up at the wildlife refuge as negotiations for their departure continue

BURNS — Saying it was doing so in “the interest of transparency,” the FBI publicly released an aerial video of the shooting death of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupier Robert LaVoy Finicum on Thursday.

An edited, eight-minute version of the 26-minute video was shown during a news conference at the Harney County Community Center. Both edited and full-length versions of the video were then released to the public.

“We know there are various versions of what occurred during this event: most inaccurate, some inflammatory,” FBI Special Agent Greg Bretzing said at the press conference. “To that end, we want to do what we can to lay out an honest and unfiltered view of what happened and how it happened.”

The video’s release culminated an eventful day in which it appeared that the last four holdouts at the refuge might leave. But as of late Thursday evening, that hadn’t happened.

The video, shot from a plane the FBI had flying over Tuesday’s traffic stop on Highway 395, about 20 miles north of Burns, shows Finicum’s white truck speeding away from the scene nearly four minutes after the FBI and Oregon State Police troopers pulled over the truck and another vehicle, in which chief occupation leader Ammon Bundy was riding, at 4:25 p.m.

Finicum, a 54-year-old Arizona rancher who had been a prominent figure in the refuge occupation, is seen driving into a snowbank after coming around a curve of the highway and encountering a law enforcement roadblock created with three vehicles positioned in a V shape.

After driving into the snowbank, off the left side of the road, Finicum can be seen quickly exiting the truck and thrusting both hands into the air, extended outward. He is confronted by at least three state police troopers with guns drawn.

It’s difficult to decipher exactly what happens next, but Finicum can be seen putting his hands in his pockets and making motions that could be interpreted as going for a weapon. One of the officers can be seen coming out of the woods, while the others are on the highway. When Finicum turns to look at the trooper coming from the woods, he spins with his hands down near his pockets and appears to be shot, falling to the ground.

Unlike at a press conference on Wednesday, Bretzing on Thursday took questions at the end of his prepared remarks. One of the first came from a reporter who said, “It looks like his hands are up.”

Bretzing’s response: “We think the video speaks for itself.”

Agents and troopers on the scene had information that Finicum and others would be armed, Bretzing said.

“On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket,” Bretzing said. “He did have a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in that pocket.”

Authorities also found three loaded weapons inside the truck, Bretzing said, including two loaded .223-caliber semiautomatic rifles and a loaded .38 special revolver.

About 30 seconds after the shooting, officers deployed flash bangs to disorient any other armed occupants in Finicum’s truck, Bretzing said. Then they deployed less-lethal sponge projectiles with capsules containing a substance similar to pepper spray, so they could safely remove the vehicle’s three other occupants, he said.

About 10 minutes after the shooting, officers provided medical assistance to Finicum, Bretzing said. He did not indicate whether Finicum was still alive.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Bretzing would not say how many times Finicum was shot or what Finicum said to officers after exiting his vehicle.

The other passengers in the truck were Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox and an 18-year-old woman whom Bretzing said was not arrested and would not be identified. Ryan Bundy, who sustained a minor injury during the incident, and Cox were arrested along with Ryan Payne, who had been riding in Finicum’s vehicle but got out before he sped away.

Riding in the other vehicle, a Jeep driven by someone who was not arrested and not identified, were Ammon Bundy and Brian Cavalier.

Mike McConnell, in a video posted on his Facebook page, identified himself on Wednesday as the driver of the Jeep. He was not arrested, but said in the video that he believed Finicum had charged at police.

A total of 11 members of the occupation had been arrested by Thursday night.

Bretzing also said Finicum’s truck nearly hit an FBI agent before it got stuck in the snow.

“Actions have consequences,” Bretzing said. “The FBI and OSP tried to effect these arrests peacefully.”

The state Medical Examiner’s Office on Thursday confirmed that the person shot in the Tuesday confrontation was Finicum.

Tribal member reacts

Charlotte Roderique, president of the Burns Paiute Tribal Council, attended Thursday’s news conference. She said she has received nasty emails and phone calls from occupation supporters in recent weeks. The tribe, whose ancestors were the first to occupy the refuge land centuries ago, has been an outspoken critic of the occupation.

“To me, Mr. Finicum was a tormented person,” Roderique said. “He had a feeling that the government was against him. And he felt he had to be outspoken and somewhat violent.

“As a tribal person, someone who has behaviors where they feel they are not part of the group, that’s a sign of a tormented spirit,” she said. “But they will be at peace in this next world because their spirit will be cleansed.”

Asked what she saw when watching the video, Roderique said it seemed to her that Finicum was attempting “to elude law enforcement, to avoid getting arrested. These things happen, and I trust law enforcement …

“I know some will say, ‘Oh, they massacred him.’ And that will be their defense.”

Asked if she felt authorities did the right thing, she said: “It’s never right to kill anybody. But if you feel threatened, you have a right.”

Holdouts identified

At the news conference, Bretzing confirmed that four occupiers were still holed up at the refuge.

“The negotiators continue to work around the clock to talk to those four people in an effort to get them to come out peacefully,” he said.

The occupation by ranchers and others began on Jan. 2, and at one point there were a couple of dozen people holed up, demanding that the federal government turn public lands over to local control. But the compound has been emptying out since the arrest of Bundy, and 10 others over the past few days, and with the death of Finicum.

Oregon Public Broadcasting spoke with the holdouts and identified them as David Fry, who is from Ohio; husband and wife Sean and Sandy Anderson of Idaho; and Jeff Banta of Nevada. Fry told OPB that Sean Anderson faces a federal arrest warrant.

Ammon Bundy on Thursday released a statement through his attorney repeating his call for the last occupiers to leave peacefully: “Turn yourselves in and do not use physical force.”

All 11 people under arrest have been charged with a felony count of conspiring to impede federal officers from carrying out their duties through force or intimidation. Three of the 11 were arrested Wednesday night when they left the refuge.

Ammon Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a tense 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.

Judge won’t release suspects

On Thursday afternoon, a convoy of about 30 law enforcement vehicles, including four armored units, passed through a roadblock that had been set up about seven miles north of the refuge. Later, two state Department of Transportation vehicles — including one with a crane — were seen heading past the roadblock and toward the refuge.

A woman named Barbara Berg, driving a car with Nevada license plates, emerged just as the roadblock was being lifted. She said she had gotten inside the refuge headquarters and tried to persuade Fry to leave.

“I almost got David to come out,” she said. “I sat down and had a beer with him.”

Berg, 51, of Winnemucca, Nev., said the FBI allowed her on the premises on Wednesday. She said she arrived last week “as a concerned person” who empathizes with the occupiers. She said she returned home, but came back after Finicum was fatally shot.

Berg said she was the one who drove Jason Patrick, 43, of Bonaire, Ga., to one of the roadblocks on Wednesday. Patrick was among the three militants arrested on Wednesday.

In other developments on Thursday:

A federal judge in Portland made it clear that she won’t release any of the alleged federal conspirators accused in the armed takeover as long as the occupation is still active, The Oregonian reported.

“So long as that situation is ongoing, I’m not going to release anybody from custody,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman said during the first court appearance Thursday for the three other people charged in the case.

The continued occupation only increases the defendants’ danger to public safety and risk of flight, Beckerman said.

Several social justice groups in Eugene said they will hold a “support vigil” on Saturday “to send the message that militias, paramilitaries and their tactics of threats and intimidation are not welcome in any of our towns or in rural Oregon.”

The vigil, which will begin at noon at the Federal Building in downtown Eugene, is sponsored by Community Alliance of Lane County, Showing Up for Racial Justice and the NAACP. The event is one of several to be held Saturday across the state coordinated by the Rural Organizing Project, intended as a show of solidarity with Harney County residents and the Burns Paiute tribe.

“The so-called patriot militias, exploiting local suffering to advance their own agenda, offer no relief for hard-hit small towns, only more divisions,” the groups said in a statement.