FBI agents investigated over shots fired during standoff
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert LaVoy Finicum, left, a rancher from Arizona, talked to reporters on Jan. 9 at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. Authorities today said police were justified in killing Finicum during a Jan. 26 traffic stop.
PORTLAND, Ore. » FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of a national wildlife refuge are under investigation for not disclosing they fired shots that missed rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an Oregon sheriff said today.
Oregon State Troopers fired the rounds that killed Finicum on Jan. 26, authorities said.
All six of their shots were justified because Finicum failed to heed officers’ commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said.
Still, it was of concern that FBI agents on the scene did not disclose they also fired shots, Deschutes County Sheriff L. Shane Nelson said at a news conference.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement it is investigating FBI agents’ actions during the confrontation with Finicum, 54.
Authorities planned the traffic stop on a remote road as a way to arrest the key members of the armed group that had taken over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Oregon State Police and FBI agents stopped two vehicles carrying occupation leaders, and officers opened fire during a confrontation with Finicum. The occupation’s leaders also were arrested.
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The Arizona rancher’s death became a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and led to protests of what they called an unnecessary use of force.
The FBI previously released a video showing the shooting to counter claims he did nothing to provoke it. In the aerial footage, Finicum is pulled over in his truck but then takes off and plows into a snowbank because of a roadblock. He gets out and has his hands up at first, then appears to reach toward his jacket pocket at least twice. Officers shoot him, and he falls.
The FBI said it found a loaded handgun in the pocket.
Finicum was a high-profile part of the weekslong standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, launched Jan. 2 by a small armed group demanding the government relinquish control of public lands and objecting to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires.
He served as the group’s unofficial spokesman and frequently spoke with media. Finicum’s affable but passionate demeanor made him a popular subject for on-camera interviews.
After his death and the arrests during the traffic stop, most occupiers cleared out of the wildlife preserve. A few holdouts extended the occupation to nearly six weeks before they surrendered Feb. 11.
More than two dozen people — including group leader Ammon Bundy — have been charged with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers in connection with the standoff.
Finicum and his wife, Jeanette, raised dozens of foster children, though social workers removed the kids from the couple’s home a few days after the occupation began.
He had said the foster kids were the family’s main source of income.
8 responses to “FBI agents investigated over shots fired during standoff”
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Why aren’t the criminals being charged with murder for Lavoy’s death? There are at least two other cases on the mainland that I read about where a criminal was charged for the death of another person killed by the police. In one case, a robber was charged for the death of his accomplice, who was shot to death by police. The theory was that a criminal is responsible for any deaths that result from their crime, even if the death is one of his accomplices. In this case, I read the “occupiers” were being charged with felonies — so why not add Lavoy’s death to that?
We gots knuckleheads like these on Hawaii. They’re called privileged homesteaders and Mauna Kea monkeys. Let’s invite the Oregon State Troopers and FBI over for some training sessions. Curiously doesn’t blocking the telescope project qualify as interference with Interstate or even International Commerce. Wasn’t a Federal law applied against Filipino purse snatchers who were seriously injuring female Japanese tourists? The State allowed the Federal Justice department to take precedence, and the schmucks were successfully charged and sentences to long terms in a mainland Federal facility. If I am correct they practice truth in sentencing rules. No paroles.
‘foster kids were the family’s main source of income’ sounds like Hawaii.
No matter where we live, what color our skin is; our blood is the same color RED and we all came from MONKEYS!
Actually apes, not monkeys.
Actually, neither.
Evolution is not fact, but fanciful theory, and bad theory at that.
In more than a century and a half since Voyage of the Beagle there has never BUT NEVER been found in the rock record ANY instance of transgenic mutation from one species to another. Changes within a species, yes, but not between species.
Darwin drew some pretty pictures and connected them in a plausible tree/branch diagram, but there is no substance to back him up.
If there were, there would be some DNA connectivity and there is not.
What if your “rock record” shows that the Earth is more than 10,000 years old? I guess there would be no proof then, that what the rocks recorded was accurate. Bad rocks. Bad.
It is not MY rock record. It is THE rock record.
If memory serves, a carbon isotope dating technique has put our home planet circa 4.5 x 10^9 years old.