Share

Grand jury indicts 16 people for OR wildlife refuge occupation

In addition to Bundy, his brother, Ryan, and others taken into custody last week in OR and Arizona, the indictment also charges the four people still at the refuge.

Advertisement

The last four people continuing an armed occupation of an OR federal wildlife refuge have been indicted by a federal grand jury.

By occupying the refuge in OR, his group demanded that the federal land be turned over to local authorities.

With four occupiers refusing to leave since then, authorities have surrounded the refuge and indicted the holdouts but have not forced them to leave.

Eleven people associated with the standoff at the Malheur refuge in rural Harney County had been arrested and charged with federal felony offenses.

Ammon Bundy, of Nevada, was involved in a 2014 armed standoff with federal agencies over grazing rights.

Additional security officers have been sent to national wildlife refuges in southern OR, northern California and Nevada amid the ongoing armed occupation of a sister refuge in southeastern OR that has caused tensions in the region and is showing no sign of ending soon.

Once the occupation began, the group brandished firearms to keep officials from carrying out their duties, threatened violence and intimidated locals “to effectuate the goals of the conspiracy”, the documents say.

The aerial video released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Finicum exiting the vehicle with his hands up, surrounded by police, before reaching toward his abdomen twice.

During this encounter on an open highway, one of the occupiers – LaVoy Finicum, who had acted as a spokesman for the group – tried to flee and, after he got out of his auto, was shot and killed by an Oregon State Police trooper.

The indictments were filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon Wednesday and unsealed Thursday.

Defense attorneys have said repeatedly at court hearings that their clients engaged in civil disobedience and are being punished for their political statements.

Finicum’s death on a remote OR road has become a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and has led to protests of what they call an unnecessary use of force.

Advertisement

“Due to the evolving situation in eastern OR, all service stations are on alert and being advised to take appropriate caution”, Shire said in a statement.

Security beefed up at national wildlife refuges in 3 states