Grand jury indictment includes four wildlife refuge holdouts

Four anti-government activists still occupying a US wildlife refuge in OR have been indicted along with 12 others previously arrested on charges of impeding federal officers during a month-long armed standoff at the compound.

During those arrests, one occupier was shot dead.

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

The deadly confrontation with police took place as Finicum and other protesters were driving to a meeting in a nearby town on a rural stretch of OR highway. “We can not comment regarding any operations about the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge”.

In addition to Bundy and the four holdouts at the refuge, those indicted include Bundy’s brother Ryan Bundy, Jon Ritzheimer, Joseph O’Shaughnessy, Ryan Payne, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Peter Santilli, Jason Patrick, Duane Lee Ehmer, Dylan Anderson and Kenneth Medenbach.

Ammon Bundy struck a defiant tone in an audio recording released on Thursday by his family.

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.

The holdouts have said they are not leaving without a guarantee they won’t be arrested. “It is time to end this”. They are identified as David Fry, 27, of Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Nevada; Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Idaho.

Tensions have continued in Harney County, where the Malheur refuge is located.

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.

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

This group, which took on the name Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, also said they were protesting the federal government’s involvement in land ownership in the area, touching on longstanding unhappiness in Western states over the way this land was managed.