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Social media not a friend to refuge occupiers

The FBI said the man had a gun in his pocket.

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An FBI checkpoint was cleared and without explanation a few reporters who happened to be there were able to start driving into the refuge, only to find a new makeshift checkpoint about a mile or so from the occupied buildings.

Mike Arnold, left, and Lissa Casey, right, representing Ammon Bundy, spoke briefly after Bundy’s appearance in the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016.

“To those at the refuge, please stand down”, Bundy begins the message.

The last occupiers have been posting YouTube videos demanding assurances they would not be arrested.

A federal judge said Thursday that she will not release any of those arrested while the occupation continues, the Oregonian reported.

In a statement Thursday issued through his lawyer, Ammon Bundy said: “Turn yourselves in, and do not use physical force”.

The group of ranchers and other activists seized the site a month ago in a protest against federal control of public lands in the West.

Court documents detail some of the evidence against the occupiers, including a memorandum filed by prosecutors Friday arguing against releasing defendants before trial.

A criminal complaint filed earlier this week makes reference to an online video that showed Bundy saying the group planned to stay for several years. In one video, Bundy called on people to “come out here and stand”, adding: “We need you to bring your arms”.

A video posted January 4 showed another defendant, Jon Ritzheimer, saying he was “100 percent willing to lay my life down”.

There are four people still held up in the the refugee who say they’re ready to die if they can’t leave peacefully.

The latest videos show them sitting around a campfire near pickup trucks, an American flag, weapons, a tarp and clutter. Bundy and four others were arrested during the encounter, and more followers were taken into custody by the next day.

In the video, which shows Fry standing by a campfire in the rain, surrounded by water bottles and other supplies, he says, “So they just want to separate us and get us all home so they can pick us off one by one at our houses without being stuck together in groups with the guns”.

“This was never meant to be an armed standoff”, Ammon Bundy said in the newly released video.

Aerial footage taken from a helicopter shows Finicum’s white truck speeding down a rural stretch of highway before swerving off the road to dodge a police barricade – narrowly avoiding an officer who steps out into Finicum’s path.

A man identified as Finicum gets out of the truck, there is gunfire as he reaches into his jacket, and he falls into the snow.

The FBI said a loaded handgun was found in the pocket.

An undisclosed number of state troopers involved in the shooting were placed on leave pending an investigation, which is standard procedure. They, like the eight members of the group arrested earlier this week, 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.

The brothers are sons of Clive Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 stand-off with the government over grazing rights.

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The group came to the desert of eastern OR in the dead of winter to protest at what it calls onerous national land restrictions and to object to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of starting fires.

The FBI the armed Oregon occupier La Voy Finicum dead at a shot a traffic stop after a high-speed chase