Oregon Standoff
What We Know So Far
Update: More information has become available, two sources confirm that Sheriff Palmer was not informed of the arrest until 5:40~5:45 PM. He was at the meeting in Grant County until that time.
Tuesday, January 26, several members of the ‘Citizens for Constitutional Freedom’ were traveling from the Harney County Resource Center (Formerly known as The Malheur Wildlife Refuge) to the town of John Day for a community meeting. Grant County Sheriff Glen Palmer was expected to be in attendance. The group was traveling in two vehicles.
While in route, about 4:25pm, multiple FBI agents, Grant County Sheriff Glen Palmer, and Oregon State Police, armed with long rifles, made a traffic stop of the group.
During this traffic stop, Ryan Payne had his hands outside of the vehicle to indicate his cooperation. A shot was fired at the vehicle at that time.
LaVoy Finicum got out of the vehicle and kept his hands in the air. Finicum, was not armed at this time, and repeated that fact to the law enforcement group.
Finicum was shot while in the surrender position. He was shot, again, after he was on the ground. LaVoy Finicum has died.
Multiple shots were fired on the vehicle.
Reports indicate that no shots were fired from the vehicle or the group.
Several people were taken into custody/arrested. They include:
Ammon Edward Bundy, age 40, of Emmett, Idaho
Ryan C. Bundy, age 43, of Bunkerville, Nevada
Brian Cavalier, age 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada
Shawna Cox, age 59, Kanab, Utah
Ryan Waylen Payne, age 32, of Anaconda, Montana
Reports include Ryan Bundy was wounded. He was treated, released and taken into custody.
In a separate event in Burns, Oregon, at approximately 5:50 pm, Oregon State Police arrested Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, age 45, Cottonwood, Arizona.
Peter Santilli, age 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was also arrested in Burns.
All of the named 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, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 372.
Additionally, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, age 32, turned himself in to police in Peoria, Arizona.
The law enforcement partners involved in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will hold a press conference at 10:30 am on Wednesday, January 27th.
LaVoy Finicum was killed one day before his 55th birthday. His wife traveled from Arizona to spend the time with him.
Finicum, speaking on Resistance Radio’s blogtalk Monday, said he relaxed a bit over the weekend and visited with his wife but could sense heightened activity from federal law enforcement.
“Definitely a lot of saber rousing going on around us,” Finicum said on on the radio blog Monday. “I do believe they’re positioning themselves. There’s definitely a hardening of their postures. They’re bringing in more assets.
They’re doing a lot of saber rattling…We’re just moving forward.”
Here is an audio interview with a woman that was in the car at the time of the arrest:
The following was provided by John Jacob Schmidt of Radio Free Redoubt:
Anyone who wanted to leave was given a 0400hrs Pacific deadline. Most of the men, almost all the women, and all of the children were given safe passage out of the refuge. The last of those who wanted to leave were out by 0230hrs. A live streaming feed from the Refuge was going throughout the night, provided by David Fry, who maintains a Youtube channel titled DefendYourBase. In the background voices announcing "here they come" and "they're coming in" could be heard. At that time David Fry announced he had to go man his post, but would leave the live feed on. One voice could be heard announcing that they could "see silhouettes." At exactly 0400hrs Pacific, the feed went dead. At this writing there are six members of the original group still holding the refuge and stating that they will make a stand, but would not fire the first shot. At this time a raid is apparently underway and all communications from the Refuge have gone dark. There was reportedly at least one woman who chose to stay and stand, and she was described as being pregnant. No further information at this time, at 0417hrs Pacific https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lAYQLD-ZuY
To watch some of our coverage, please go to Revolution Radio.
H/T to our readers for helping to gather information on this situation.
Sheri you need to change this: “While in route, about 4:25pm, multiple FBI agents, Grant County Sheriff Glen Palmer, and Oregon State Police, armed with long rifles, made a traffic stop of the group.”
Since you reported on Revolution Radio that Sheriff Palmer was at the John Day meeting until 5:45 p.m.
In addition Brandon Curtliss with Idhao 3 percenters says he was the one that made the call to alert Sheriff Grant of the ambush at about 5:40 p.m. He states the sheriff was in John Day and unaware of these events.
Updated, and thanks for helping to point that out.
The Press Conference today, Harney County Sheriff David Ward confirmed this entire thing was all a set up. A “Tactical Plan”.
We received word that the Grant County Sheriff was at the north end of the road block. We do not know if he could see what was happening. (probably not)
Clarification, please. Was the Grant County Sheriff in on the stop, or was that a misprint? I thought he was a Constitutional Sheriff.