Ammon Bundy, Now In Custody, Tells Oregon Militia To Go Home

Authorities were restricting access on Wednesday to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge being occupied by an armed group after one of the occupiers was killed during a traffic stop and eight more, including the group’s leader Ammon Bundy, were arrested.

Their exodus followed calls by incarcerated leader Ammon Bundy to give up the occupation Wednesday.

It was not certain how many holdouts were still hunkered down in a cluster of small buildings inside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in northeast OR as of Thursday morning, but in a video posted overnight on YouTube, activist David Fry said he was among five people still there.

“Me and my siblings have this mass text we keep shooting around to each other to try and figure out what’s going on”, said Challice Finicum, 24. “The fight is now in the courts”.

“Right now I am asking the federal government to allow the people at the refuge to go home without being prosecuted”.

Through his lawyer, Ammon Bundy called on the remnant to leave: “To those remaining at the refuge, I love you”.

Led by Bundy, the militants have been occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., since early this month as part of an ongoing dispute between ranchers and the federal Bureau of Land Management.

The occupation began on January 2, and at one point there were a couple of dozen people holed up, demanding that the federal government turn public lands over to local control. The negotiator’s response was that it’s not possible to drop the felony charge, Fry says – something he says is “kind of silly”.

“They bombarded our vehicle with bullets, Ryan (Bundy) got hit in the shoulder”, Sharp said in the clip. Bundy’s brother, Ryan, was shot.

“The fact that there is now a blockade to the refuge, I find myself and the community as a whole having a sigh of relief”.

It’s the same charge leveled against other protesters arrested Tuesday.

Following Tuesday’s arrests and shooting, locals and supporters have been urging the remaining protesters to abandon the occupation. One said he charged at Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who then shot him, but a member of the Bundy family said Finicum did nothing to provoke the agents.

Ammon is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights. He said an eighth member of the militant group who turned himself in to authorities Tuesday in Arizona was expected to return to OR for a court appearance at a later date.

According to Macfarlane, the Finicum family, which has gathered in LaVoy’s hometown of Cane Beds, Arizona, said they had always known the demonstration was risky, and at one point even encouraged LaVoy to leave. The FBI said that three others were also arrested separately in connection with the occupation. “This can’t happen in America”. Law enforcement said in press conference Wednesday afternoon that they’re working to empty the refuge of anyone still illegally in there.

Reporters have cleared out of the refuge, which the remaining militants on location saw as a sign that federal authorities were preparing to take final action.