Bundy met the sheriff on a roadside after leaving the compound with other occupiers in two vehicles.
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A member of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters Duane Ehmer rides his horse Hellboy at the occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on the sixth day of the occupation of the federal building in Burns, Oregon on January 7, 2016.
The group, which calls itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, took over the refuge on Saturday to protest the re-sentencing of two Oregonian ranchers, Dwight and Steve Hammond.
A lawyer for Hammond family has said that the occupiers do not speak for the family.
Following the brief meeting, Bundy told reporters that he would consider Ward’s position, but the sheriff had not addressed their grievances.
As time goes on, the situation in OR, and how the government will respond, is bringing up discussions of the standoffs between the feds and private citizens in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993.
During the meeting, the Sheriff asked Bundy to please leave and respect the wishes of Harney County residents. But a USA attorney has said the Hammonds set fire to the property to mask poaching activities.
Ryan Bundy, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, walks to a news conference at Malheur Na …
Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum says that he believes federal officials have issued warrants for the arrest of five group members – including himself and Ammon Bundy – but Finicum offered no details.
Randy Eardley, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman, said the group’s call for control of the land to be transferred makes no sense.
“We’re friends, but we’re operating separately”, Rapolla, a former U.S. Marine who helped defend the Bundys in 2014 in their standoff with the U.S. government at their Nevada ranch, said in an earlier interview.
And it is a sign of how distrustful of law enforcement much of the nation has become that there is active debate about what police reaction would have been if these armed occupiers were black, Latino or Muslim.
Harney County Sheriff David Ward told hundreds of people gathered at the meeting Wednesday evening that the group needed to leave so local people could get back to their lives.
The protesters have claimed the community is behind them. However, Ward told NBC News on Wednesday that the activists would face federal charges whenever the siege ends. A judge ruled in October that their prior terms for the arson – three months for the father and one year for the son – were too short under federal law.
A few days ago Bundy said the group would eventually leave.
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He did not elaborate or specify whether any local residents had accepted the offer for land, or how his group would go about stripping the federal government of ownership. “However, the illegal activity of so-called militia groups only harms the Hammonds and the rest of the community because it diverts public attention and scrutiny away from the injustice that the federal government perpetrated on this OR family”.
