Police say man arrested in US vehicle stolen from refuge

Oregon State Police arrested a 62-year-old man who was driving a stolen Malheur National Wildlife Refuge vehicle in Burns Friday afternoon.

OR police on Friday for the first time arrested a man in connection with the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge, apprehending a member of the group over two stolen government vehicles, authorities said.

“He was arrested on probable cause for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle”, the Harney County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.

About 30 miles to the south an armed group has taken over the national wildlife refuge Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal land use policies.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is grateful for the quick actions from law enforcement”, said USFWS spokesperson Megan Nagel. County commissioner Steven Grasty said Wednesday that the county won’t let any group affiliated with the occupiers use its property. A community meeting that the group was hoping to hold Friday at the county fair grounds was blocked by local authorities.

Militants led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since January 2.

A spokesman for the armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in OR says they still want to have a meeting with local residents, perhaps early next week.

Concrete barriers and fences block off streets around the Harney County Courthouse in the small eastern OR town of Burns where law enforcement officers called in from around the state have set up a command center in the back and guard the vehicle entrance.

In Oct. 1995, federal agents reported in sworn affidavits that they observed him cutting trees in on the BLM land, attempting to rebuild a cabin. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an Arizona rancher who is participating in the occupation, told reporters Friday that Bundy is preparing a PowerPoint presentation for the gathering. He criticized local officials for “making sure we have no access to facilities to talk to the residents”.

An attorney for those ranchers, a father and son who surrendered at a California prison January 4, has said Bundy’s group does not speak for them. Some are angry with what many consider overly restrictive policies on federal lands but aren’t enthused about the armed group that took over the refuge.

The group has said they won’t leave until the ranchers jailed for arson are freed and the refuge is turned over to local control. In the mid-1990s, Medenbach claimed 640 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in north Klamath County.