A month into the occupation of a federal wildlife facility in OR, the divisions over the anti-government standoff grew.
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Pro-militia supporters (L) and anti-militia supporters (R) confront each other at a protest outside the Harney County Courthouse in Burns, Oregon February 1, 2016.
The tense demonstrations continued for almost four hours. Authorities locked up the courthouse as a precautionary measure.
The anti-government protesters, many wearing camouflage and waving American flags, stood across the sidewalk from the local residents, carrying signs that said, “Finicum was murdered in cold blood”, “Blood on government hands” and “All lives matter”. They shouted, “Go home!”
Four members of the protest group remain inside the refuge. Fry has said the four want assurances they won’t be arrested and demand pardons for everyone involved.
“To those at the refuge, please stand down”, Ammon Bundy said after he was arrested.
In a notarized letter from Clark County, Nevada, Bundy wrote to Harney County Sheriff David Ward that “We the People of Harney County and also We the People of the citizens of the United States DO GIVE NOTICE THAT WE WILL RETAIN POSSESSION OF THE HARNEY COUNTY RESOURCE CENTER”. He carried a sign saying, “For the love of God, free the people”.
But Judge Stacie Beckerman denied bond to Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne, Dylan Anderson and Jason Patrick, Oregon public radio reported.
Those arrested face a felony conspiracy charge of using intimidation to prevent federal employees from their work at the refuge. Beckerman said Bundy repeatedly ignored federal demands to leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and she had little confidence he would comply with orders to show up in court.
As recently as this weekend, only one demonstration had been expected: Professed patriot groups had issued a call for militia members and others who support the takeover of the wildlife refuge to come here and make their voices heard.
The occupiers said Finicum had his hands in the air when he was shot.
According to the FBI, Finicum reached for a gun before authorities shot him.
A makeshift memorial has sprung up where Finicum was killed in Oregon. Finicum had a loaded handgun in that pocket, Bretzing said.
The FBI released a video of the shooting that shows Mr. Finicum driving at high speed toward a police roadblock, swerving and getting stuck in a snowbank.
“We know there are various versions of what occurred during this event: most inaccurate, some inflammatory”. No video has been posted since Sunday.
Mr. Soper said his group had presented a petition, with 200 signatures, to county officials with several demands, including the arrest of law enforcement officials involved in the operation that led to Mr. Finicum’s death, the “immediate removal of all militarized Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel and equipment from Harney County”, and the resignation of several local officials.
Ammon Bundy and others started out protesting the sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, ranchers who were convicted of arson on federal lands in Oregon.
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The occupation began when Bundy and at least a dozen followers took the refuge in a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres and fees charged to ranchers for grazing their cattle on government land.
