Ammon Bundy wants protesters to stand down and go home
An attorney for Ammon Bundy said the protest leader wants the remaining occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge to stand down and go home.
The message from Bundy came Wednesday afternoon, after a federal judge ordered him and six co-defendants to be held without bail. The group was arrested Tuesday during a carefully orchestrated roadblock and traffic stop on a highway in southeast Oregon that left one man dead.
At a news conference Wednesday, the FBI called the operation the “first step” in an effort to end the weekslong occupation at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. That night, three more people in Oregon were arrested in connection with the occupation.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing said “containment roadblocks” are in place around the refuge, where an armed group pledged to prolong its standoff with the government a day after Arizona rancher Robert LaVoy Finicum was killed as authorities moved to arrest the group’s leaders, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy.
Bretzing said those left at the refuge are free to leave but will have to pass through the roadblocks and be identified.
Late Wednesday the FBI announced three people — Jason Patrick, 43, of Bonaire, Georgia; Duane Leo Ehmer, 45, or Irrigon, Oregon; and Dylan Wade Anderson, 34, of Provo, Utah — were taken into custody at a checkpoint outside the refuge, but details on the circumstances of their arrest or their charges were not immediately available.
It’s unclear how many people are still holed up in refuge offices, but Ammon Bundy thinks it’s time for them to exit.
Attorney Mike Arnold delivered the message to reporters. Reading from a statement from Bundy, he said, “We need to step back. Somebody died yesterday.”
During the televised news conference from Burns, Oregon, earlier in the day, Bretzing said authorities have taken a “very deliberate and measured response” to the occupation in hopes of bringing it to a peaceful end.
“It is the actions and choices of the armed occupiers that has led us to where we are today,” he said. “They had ample opportunity to leave the refuge peacefully, and as the FBI and our partners have clearly demonstrated, actions are not without consequences.”
Bretzing and U.S. Attorney Bill Williams declined to identify the man who was shot and killed or offer any other details on Tuesday’s incident, which is under investigation.
Activists and family members have identified the dead man as Finicum, who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers and participated in the 2014 armed standoff in Nevada between the Bundys and the Bureau of Land Management.
Federal officials said Tuesday they had probable cause to arrest Finicum, who told NBC News earlier this month that he would rather die than be detained.
A second person was shot during the traffic stop and was treated for injuries that weren’t life-threatening, police said. Cliven Bundy said his son, Ryan, was shot in the arm.
According to the FBI, Ammon, 40, and Ryan, 43, were arrested Tuesday along with the Bundy family’s self-described “personal bodyguard” Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville; Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Ryan Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Montana. They were due to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Portland, where they all 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.
The FBI said two other members of the anti-government group — Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Arizona, and Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati — were arrested elsewhere in southeastern Oregon.
Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, a militia member who had left the refuge earlier, turned himself in to police in Peoria, Arizona, on Tuesday night, the FBI said. He is also being held without bail pending a federal court hearing slated for Feb. 2.
In a 32-page criminal complaint unsealed in Portland on Wednesday, the FBI laid out the grounds for arresting the militants, suggesting others could also be charged in the conspiracy to take over the wildlife refuge on Jan. 2.
Ammon Bundy and Payne set the stage for the occupation on Oct. 5 when they warned Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward in Burns that he needed to protect local ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond from going back to prison, according to the complaint.
Bundy and Payne told Ward that if the Hammonds spent one more day in jail, there would be “extreme civil unrest.”
On Nov. 15, the Bundy family posted a letter on its Bundy Ranch blog claiming the government was abusing its authority in punishing the Hammonds, who later distanced themselves from the Bundys, the complaint states.
Several weeks later, on Dec. 18, a Burns resident wearing a BLM shirt was harassed while shopping at a supermarket by two men, one of whom she identified as Ritzheimer. One of the men allegedly threatened to burn down the woman’s home.
After the takeover the Bundys and others arrested used social media numerous times to promote their cause and recruit supporters, according to the complaint.
The wildlife refuge’s 16 employees, most of whom work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have been prevented from reporting to work and conducting essential business and maintenance, which has caused the facilities to be “degraded and damaged” while under occupation.
A local sheriff’s deputy told the BLM that a source indicated the group occupying the refuge had “explosives, night-vision goggles and weapons and that if they didn’t get the fight they wanted out there, they would bring the fight to town,” according to the complaint.
Before Ammon Bundy encouraged them to stand down, one of the remaining occupiers at the reserve, Jason Patrick, told Reuters by phone they would stay until the “redress of grievances.”
“I’ve heard ‘peaceful resolution’ for weeks now, and now there’s a cowboy who is my friend who is dead — so prepare for the peaceful resolution,” Patrick said.
By Wednesday evening, though, Patrick said the refuge had begun to clear out.
“I don’t know what surrendering looks like. They’re walking through the checkpoint and going home. That’s what I’ve heard unless I’m being lied to,” he said. “It’s getting emptier over time, some people leaving, some people still there holding onto what they’re holding onto.”
The Malheur takeover is the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West. Protesters say they are defending the Constitution, but many of their arguments have lost in court.
In an interview at his ranch near Bunkerville on Tuesday night, Cliven Bundy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Finicum’s death and the arrest of his sons would be “a wake-up call to America.”
“My sons were there to do good,” the elder Bundy said. “This is a total disaster to be happening in America.”
But Ward, the county sheriff where the occupation may be nearing an end, said the protesters are to blame for choosing a path leading to bloodshed instead of working within the system as citizens should.
“We don’t arm up and rebel, we work through appropriate channels,” said Ward, his voice breaking, during Wednesday’s news conference. “This can’t happen anymore. This can’t happen in America, and it can’t happen in Harney County.”
CNN and Reuters contributed to this report.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow him on Twitter: @RefriedBrean Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ
