JOHN DAY, Ore. — Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed seizing of a federal wildlife refuge
in rural eastern Oregon, was arrested and one person was killed Tuesday
afternoon in a traffic stop in rural Oregon, the F.B.I. and the Oregon
State Police said.
Seven
other people, including Mr. Bundy’s brother Ryan Bundy, were arrested,
the authorities said. Another person was hospitalized with injuries that
were not life-threatening.
The
authorities did not identify the man who was killed, but a member of
the Nevada State Assembly, Michele Fiore, who has been a supporter of
the Bundy family, said on Twitter that it was LaVoy Finicum. Mr. Finicum had become a de facto spokesman for the occupiers.
The
confrontation came after more than three weeks of growing tension and
anxiety that put the tiny community of Burns — about a five-hour drive
from Portland — into an international debate about homegrown right-wing
militias, public lands and constitutional rights. Mr. Bundy, 40, and a
group of his followers, adopting the name Citizens for Constitutional
Freedom, occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles
southeast of Burns, in Harney County, on Jan. 2.
Community
leaders demanded that the group leave, but several members were still
occupying the refuge Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning, local
media reported that roadblocks had been set up to limit access to the
refuge.
The Bundy brothers and supporters were arrested along Highway 395 outside Burns around 4:25 p.m., officials said.
Ammon
Bundy and some of his group had been expected at a community meeting
Tuesday night about 70 miles away in John Day, Ore., about 100 miles
north of the Malheur refuge in Grant County, a county adjacent to
Harney. Mr. Bundy he was to be the guest speaker. They never arrived.
The
Bundys and the other occupiers contend that the federal government had
illegally taken land in Oregon and elsewhere around the West from
ranchers and other private landholders over the decades, and they
demanded that it be returned to local control. They also said they were
supporting two local ranchers imprisoned for setting fires that spread
to federal land.
Oregon’s
governor, Kate Brown, who has called on the federal government to
enforce the law, asked Oregonians on Tuesday night to be patient as the
investigation unfolded. The refuge is operated by the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service.
But
until Tuesday afternoon, when the occupation leaders were away from the
refuge site, apparently en route to the John Day meeting — a strange,
tortured atmosphere defined the standoff. For weeks, there was deep
uncertainty as to how, when or, some said, even if law enforcement
agents would take action.
The
F.B.I. and the Oregon State Police said that Mr. Bundy, his brother and
three other people, including Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah, and Ryan
Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont., were arrested on a state highway,
but they provided no further details. Ms. Cox and Mr. Payne were
prominent in speaking for the refuge. Also arrested on the highway was
Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev.
The
authorities said only that shots were fired during the course of the
arrest. Two other people: Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, and Joseph
Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz., were arrested later in
Burns, and John Eric Ritzheimer, 32, turned himself in to the police in
Peoria, Ariz., the authorities said. All of the defendants face a
federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United
States from discharging their official duties through the use of force,
intimidation or threats.
At
the refuge, a spokesman said they would wait out the night. Jason
Patrick, an occupier, said that several people were still inside and
that the mood was “prepared but calm.”
“They
said ‘peaceful resolution,’ but now there is a dead cowboy,” he said,
adding that he believes the F.B.I. was “hellbent on war.”
Mr. Bundy’s family became a symbol of antigovernment sentiment in 2014 when his father, Cliven Bundy,
inspired a standoff between armed local activists and federal officials
seeking to confiscate cattle grazing illegally on federal land in
Nevada.
At
the refuge, a 188,000-acre expanse of high desert sage that is known as
one of the great migratory bird viewing areas of North America,
vehement determination and low-key, soft-spoken declarations of belief
mixed like oil and water on any given day. Supporters of the occupation —
Mr. Santilli, in particular — were openly belligerent to
counterprotesters and other opponents of the occupation. On one recent
day, when an environmental group came bearing signs denouncing the
occupation, Mr. Santilli screamed in their faces.
Mr.
Santilli was recording a live stream on Tuesday when he was taken into
custody as he tried to re-enter the refuge. Supporters who were in a
vehicle with him said in the video that they had been trying to evacuate
some women and children.
Ms.
Cox, in an interview inside a building at the refuge a few days before
her arrest, also vowed to stay until the federal government handed it
over to local control. “When the people come and take their rightful
position, then we can go home,” she said. “They are coming; it’s just
taking a little while.”
Harney
County, which has only about 7,100 people spread out over an area
roughly the size of Massachusetts, has a small hospital in Burns, the
biggest community. Law enforcement officials did not say where the
injured person was treated. But St. Charles hospital in Bend, about 150
miles west of the refuge, was on lockdown Tuesday night, with no one
other than patients and employees able to enter. There were 10 police
cars and one fire truck in front. Two police officers with assault
weapons were in the foyer. Officials would not confirm if any victims
have been airlifted there.
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