Tag Archives: Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Oregon protesters face new charges over occupation of refuge

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Participants in a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have been indicted on additional charges, including the carrying of firearms in federal facilities and damaging government property.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on Tuesday and unsealed on Wednesday as the anti-government protesters appeared in federal court in Portland, superseded an earlier indictment in the case.

It added charges against protest leader Ammon Bundy and other sympathizers indicted last month for conspiring to impede federal officers policing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during a long-simmering dispute over land rights.

The occupation, which began on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

It also marked the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

On Tuesday, a county prosecutor said protester Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who was fatally shot by Oregon State Police in late January during a traffic stop, was struck three times in the back during the incident. The prosecutor deemed the killing “justified and necessary.”

The superseding indictment lists 26 defendants. Each is charged with the initial count of conspiring to impede federal agents. It newly accuses Bundy, his brother Ryan, and some of the other protesters of possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities, and the use and carrying of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

“We anticipated new charges and we’re glad to see they added them to the indictment sooner rather than later,” said Mike Arnold, a lawyer for Ammon Bundy. “We look forward to the jury trial.”

Another charge, depredation of government property, was leveled against Sean Anderson and another sympathizer, whose name has been redacted from court documents. It alleges the pair damaged an archeological site considered sacred to the Burns Paiute Tribe through the use of excavation and heavy equipment.

The FBI has said it was working with the tribe to identify damage to its artifacts and sacred burial grounds during the 41-day occupation.

Three occupiers were also indicted on charges of theft of government property – Kenneth Medenbach for allegedly stealing a 2012 Ford F-350 Truck, and Ryan Bundy and Jon Ritzheimer for allegedly stealing cameras and related equipment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Police shot Oregon protester in back, but prosecutor says act was ‘justified’

(Reuters) – A slain leader of the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon was killed by three gunshots fired into his back by police, a county prosecutor said on Tuesday, calling the shooting “justified and necessary.”

Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot and killed by Oregon State Police on Jan. 26 after he ran from his pickup truck at a roadblock along a snow-covered roadside during the occupation by lands rights protesters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Relatives of Finicum, who was a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the refuge, have previously said that he posed no threat to police during the confrontation and have rejected official assertions that he was armed at the time.

Speaking at a press conference in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said a loaded 9mm handgun was found in the pocket of Finicum’s jacket following the shooting.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said eight shots were fired at Finicum during the confrontation, six of them by Oregon State Police officers and two by FBI agents.

An autopsy found that three of the bullets fired by Oregon State Police officers struck Finicum in the base of the neck, shoulder and lower back and led to his death, Norris said.

“The six shots fired by the Oregon State Police were justified and in fact necessary,” Norris said.

During the press conference, officials played video and audio tapes of the confrontation, during which Finicum can be heard telling law enforcement officers: “Go ahead, put the bullet through me. I don’t care. I’m going to meet the sheriff. You do as you damn well please.”

At another point he is heard to say: “If you want a blood bath, it’s on your hands.”

The videotape had been released previously but was synched with audio from inside the pickup truck and played in slow motion at times to show what law enforcement officials said was Finicum reaching for his weapon immediately before he was shot.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that its inspector general’s office was investigating the actions of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team in the Finicum shooting.

The takeover, which began on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

It also marked the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

The leaders of the standoff, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were arrested at the same traffic stop at which Finicum was slain.

The final four holdouts were taken into custody on Feb. 17, ending the 41-day standoff. At least 16 people have been charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers in connection with the occupation.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Eric Johnson and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler and Tom Brown)

Oregon refuge searched for evidence, explosives after occupiers leave

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) – Police and federal agents searched a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon for explosives and evidence on Friday, a day after the last holdouts in a protest over federal control of Western land surrendered to end a six-week armed standoff.

Federal authorities said the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon would remain closed for several weeks as agents secured what is now considered a crime scene.

After their surrender on Thursday, protesters told authorities they had left behind booby traps but did not say whether the trip wires and other devices would trigger explosions, a law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Materials to create explosives could be found on the refuge, the official said, because workers there previously performed controlled burns.

The final four protesters had enough food on hand to last them for many months, the official said.

The nearby town of Burns, which has been caught in the middle as the occupiers protested federal government control of expanses of Western land, was quiet on Friday as residents sought to resume normal life after the 41-day standoff.

The final four protesters surrendered on Thursday with David Fry, 27, repeatedly threatening suicide in a dramatic final phone call with mediators before he gave up. All 12 people arrested in connection with the standoff will face charges of conspiracy to impede federal officers, according to the FBI.

The takeover, which began on Jan. 2, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property near the refuge. It was led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who were arrested in January along with nine other protesters on a snow-covered roadside while on their way to speak at a community meeting in John Day, Oregon.

A spokesman for the group, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was shot dead in the stop.

The Bundys’ father, Cliven, was arrested on Wednesday night in Portland and charged with conspiracy and assault on a federal officer in connection with a 2014 standoff on federal land near his Nevada ranch.

The official who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity said that the Bundy brothers and others began confronting the local sheriff in November but federal authorities did not get involved until the protesters began occupying the refuge.

That low profile was intentional because “a federal face is often a trigger for these militia” groups, the official said.

The official told Reuters that authorities made the decision to arrest the Bundy brothers and their fellow protesters out of concern that the standoff movement could spread as the group took their message to other communities.

(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington, D.C. Jonathan Allen in New York, and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sara Catania, Phil Berlowitz and Bill Trott)

Last four occupiers surrender at Oregon wildlife refuge, ending 41-day standoff

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – The final four holdouts in an armed protest at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon surrendered on Thursday, with the last occupier repeatedly threatening suicide before he walked out, ending the 41-day standoff with the FBI.

David Fry, 27, had remained behind for more than an hour and told supporters by phone he had not agreed with the other three to leave. The phone conversation was broadcast live on an audio feed posted on the Internet.

“I’m actually pointing a gun at my head, I’m tired of living,” Fry said during the phone call. He later added, “Until you address my grievances, you’re probably going to have to watch me be killed, or kill myself.”

Fry finally surrendered and authorities could be heard over the phone line telling him to put his hands up before the call disconnected.

Portland’s KGW television later showed a caravan of sport utility vehicles escorted by police driving out of the refuge in remote eastern Oregon.

The FBI said in a statement the final four occupiers had surrendered.

The takeover at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which began on Jan. 2, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

The standoff, originally led by brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, came to a head after the arrest on Wednesday in Portland of their father, Cliven Bundy, 74. On Thursday he was charged with conspiracy, assault on a federal officer and obstruction of justice in connection with a separate 2014 standoff on federal land near his Nevada ranch.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy had been arrested in January along with nine other protesters on a snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was shot dead. A 12th member of the group surrendered to police in Arizona.

The Malheur occupation had also been a protest against federal control over millions of acres public land in the West.

After Cliven Bundy’s arrest, three of four remaining occupiers surrendered to the FBI at the urging of Nevada state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, a Republican, and Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham, who both traveled to the site.

Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada, and married couple Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Riggins, Idaho, surrendered peacefully, according to the webcast of a phone call with the protesters.

The protesters narrated the surrender, with the married Andersons described as emerging with their hands up, holding hands.

Blaine Cooper, one of the original occupiers, has been arrested, according to a Twitter tweet from a reporter for the Oregonian newspaper, who attributed the information to Cooper’s wife. Both left the refuge after Finicum was shot.

The last four holdouts were indicted last week along with 12 others previously arrested on charges of conspiring to impede federal officers during the occupation.

A judge has cited the continuing standoff as a major obstacle to the release of at least some of those who remain jailed on federal charges.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Julia Edwards in Washington and Eric Johnson and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Sara Catania and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Four protesters still occupying Oregon wildlife refuge charged

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Four anti-government activists still occupying a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have been indicted along with 12 others previously arrested on charges of impeding federal officers during a month-long armed standoff at the compound.

The indictment, filed in federal court in Oregon and unsealed on Thursday, supersedes an earlier criminal complaint that charged protest leader Ammon Bundy and others with preventing officers and employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from discharging their duties by “force, intimidation, and threats.”

Attorneys for the defendants were not immediately available for comment.

The occupation began Jan. 2, when Bundy, his brother Ryan and other followers took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in remote eastern Oregon to protest federal control of millions of acres of public land in the West.

The three-page indictment says the defendants blocked federal agents in the performance of their duties, brandished firearms and refused to leave the refuge and threatened violence against anybody who attempted to remove them.

It also says the protesters recruited others in person and over social media to join their ranks, and warned the sheriff of Harney County in the nearby town of Burns of “extreme civil unrest” if their demands were unmet, among other acts of intimidation.

The Bundy brothers and nine others were arrested last week in Oregon, most of them during a confrontation with FBI and state police on a snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was shot to death. A 12th member of the group turned himself in to authorities in Arizona.

Two of those arrested have since been released on condition that they wear electronic tracking devices while awaiting trial, leaving 10 of the former protesters, including the Bundys, still in custody.

Their immediate fate has been clouded by the four holdouts among the group, who joined the protest after it started but have so far refused to end their occupation of the refuge.

A judge has cited the continuing standoff as a major obstacle to the release of at least some of those who remain in custody. An attorney for arrested protester Jason Patrick, named in the indictment, referred to the holdouts as “four idiots” at odds with his client’s aims.

The indictment contains the same charges as those in the criminal complaint filed last month but avoids the need for prosecutors to seek a judge’s determination that sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial.

(Reporting by Shelby Sebens in Portland, Oregon; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Steve Gorman and Dan Grebler)

Family of Oregon occupier shot by law enforcement alleges cover-up

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Relatives of a man shot dead by law enforcement officers after taking part in the armed occupation of a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have accused the FBI and state police of covering up the circumstances of his death last week.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, family of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum called the shooting “unjustified” and said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oregon State Police were “seeking to manipulate and mislead the media and the American public about what really happened.”

The FBI declined to comment beyond directing attention to an aerial video of last Tuesday’s shooting that it released two days later and posted online.

The agency has contended the video shows Fincium outside his truck making a move for a gun in his coat pocket as he was shot to death by state police. The confrontation occurred on a snow-covered roadside after Finicum and others were stopped by police en route from the refuge to the town of John Day, Oregon, where they had planned to speak.

Finicum’s relatives said they believe officers opened fire before he left his truck, and that he was shot before he lowered his hands in what they said was a reflex to being shot.

They demanded release of any footage that may have been recorded by police body cameras or dashboard cameras, any audio recordings relating to the shooting, and close-up images of Finicum’s truck.

A statement on Tuesday from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office that said it was leading an investigation into the shooting. State police did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Finicum, 54, a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2, was shot dead shortly after the arrest of protest organizers Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy and several others.

The deadly encounter unfolded moments after Finicum sped away from law enforcement officers who had just taken the Bundy brothers into custody, then tried to run a police roadblock, plowing into a snowbank and narrowly missing an FBI agent.

Finicum can be seen raising his hands as he emerged from his vehicle, then turning as he apparently flails his arms and then falls to the ground, but his precise movements are difficult to discern from the video.

In their statement, his relatives said they had reached their conclusions about the shooting after speaking with Shawna Cox, who they said was in Finicum’s vehicle and was arrested at the shooting scene.

Cox was released from custody by a Portland judge on Friday to await trial on a charge of conspiracy to impede federal officers.

(Reporting by Shelby Sebens in Portland, Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman, Toni Reinhold)

Oregon occupiers remain holed up after FBI releases video of shooting

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) – Four die-hard anti-government militants held their ground at an Oregon wildlife refuge on Friday, a day after the FBI released a video of the fatal shooting of one of the protesters at a traffic stop.

As the standoff with federal authorities neared the end of its fourth week, Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland office, said on Thursday night authorities were trying to negotiate with the four holdouts.

They are holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 30 miles from Burns, a small ranging town in the state’s arid southeast.

The movement’s jailed leader, Ammon Bundy, has issued two separate messages through his attorney urging the few remaining protesters at to stand down, saying the group would continue their fight against federal land policy in court.

The occupation began on Jan. 2 when Bundy and at least a dozen followers occupied a small cluster of buildings at the refuge in a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

The FBI took the unusual step on Thursday of releasing video footage of the shooting of 54-year-old Robert LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona who had acted as a spokesman for the occupiers.

The video was released hours after a lawyer for Finicum’s family said other evidence may exist that shows the Arizona rancher was not threatening authorities.

On Tuesday, some of the group’s most recognizable members, including Bundy, were stopped by the FBI and Oregon State Police as they headed to a speaking event. Bundy and four others were taken into custody and Finicum was killed.

VIDEO OF SHOOTING

Authorities said Finicum was armed when he was killed. Aerial video taken from a law enforcement aircraft shows Finicum speeding away from authorities in a white truck and nearly striking a law officer, while trying to evade a police barricade before barreling into a snowbank and exiting the car.

The grainy footage shows Finicum raise his hands in the air and then turn and flail his arms, which lower down to his body before he is shot by Oregon State Police troopers, according to the FBI.

Bretzing, who narrated the video for reporters, said Finicum can be seen reaching for his jacket pocket, where law enforcement found a handgun. But the lack of focus in the video makes it difficult to discern Finicum’s precise movements before the shooting.

“Based on some things that I’ve seen, I think there is potentially a completely different side to the story compared to what is being represented,” Finicum family attorney Todd Macfarlane told Reuters. He could not be reached for reaction to the FBI video release.

Macfarlane said one of the sources for his view was the version of events from Victoria Sharp, who says she was at the scene and watched Finicum die.

Sharp said in an interview with Reuters that Finicum was shot with his gun in his holster and his hands in the air, shouting and walking toward police.

Neither state nor federal law enforcement would comment on whether Sharp was at the scene or on her own detailed description. Reuters was not able to independently confirm her version of the events.

The FBI’s Bretzing told reporters that the law enforcement’s video was released “in the interest of transparency.”

Following his initial court appearance in Portland on Wednesday, Ammon Bundy urged the holdouts to stand down, saying he would continue the fight in court.

Reactions to the takeover by Burns residents have ranged from sympathy for two imprisoned local ranchers whose plight began the protest, to dismay at the armed occupation by individuals seen as outsiders.

(Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Daniel Wallis in Denver, Victoria Cavaliere and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, and Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Frances Kerry)

Oregon occupation simmers as few holdouts surrounded by law enforcement

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) – Police and federal agents sought on Thursday to convince a handful of remaining protesters to abandon their occupation of a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon following the shooting death of a comrade and calls from their jailed leader to stand down.

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 Oregon as of Thursday morning, but in a video posted overnight on YouTube, activist David Fry said he was among five people still there.

Eight more occupiers have left the compound since law enforcement surrounded it after taking protest leader Ammon Bundy and other members of his group into custody on Tuesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.

“The FBI and our partners continue to work around the clock to empty the refuge of the armed occupiers in the safest way possible,” the agency said in its statement.

Bundy left the refuge on Tuesday afternoon accompanied by members of his leadership team en route to speak at a community meeting in John Day, Oregon, and was stopped by law enforcement along Highway 395.

Shots were fired and one protester was killed before Bundy and several others were taken into custody. Activists have identified the slain man as Robert LaVoy Finicum, a rancher who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers. Ammon’s brother, Ryan, was wounded in the incident.

Law enforcement officials, citing an investigation, have refused to say what led to the fatal shooting but pleaded with protest members to leave the refuge peacefully.

Following a court appearance in Portland on Wednesday, Ammon Bundy, in a statement read by his attorney, urged the holdouts to stand down, saying he would carry on the fight in the legal system.

“To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here,” he said. “Please stand down. Go home and hug your families. This fight is ours for now in the courts. Please go home.”

In an audio recording released by Ammon Bundy’s attorney on Thursday, Bundy’s wife Lisa repeated his message to the protesters remaining at the wildlife refuge.

“I spoke with Ammon’s lawyers yesterday and heard from his voice that those were his instructions: he wants people to go home; to go to their families,” Lisa Bundy said in the brief recording.

Bundy and at least a dozen armed individuals holed up at the refuge on Jan. 2 in a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

In the YouTube video, Fry said some activists fled so quickly after Bundy’s arrest that they left their guns.

“Right now, the situation is that they’re willing to let, out of five people left here, four of us are allowed to leave, and one of them … he has a felony warrant,” Fry said.

Fry said his group will not leave the refuge unless authorities drop the charges against the man accused of obstructing a federal worker from doing his job.

Of the eight people who have left the refuge since Bundy’s arrest, three were taken into custody, the FBI said in it’s statement.

Jason Patrick, who remained at the refuge following Bundy’s arrest, told Reuters by phone some protesters were leaving through checkpoints but he rejected the word “surrender.”

Patrick was among the three arrested late Wednesday, according to the FBI.

Reactions to the takeover from residents in Burns, about 30 miles (48 km) from the refuge, have included sympathy for two imprisoned local ranchers whose plight began the protest, to dismay at the armed occupation by individuals seen as outsiders.

(Additional reporting by Ed Tobin and Gina Cherelus in New York and Victoria Cavaliere and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Gareth Jones and Bill Trott)

Authorities urge remaining Oregon occupiers to quit after killing

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) – State and federal authorities pleaded with the armed men still occupying a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon to leave on Wednesday, a day after an attempt to resolve the standoff peacefully by detaining their leader ended with one man shot to death.

But one of the remaining occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Oregon told Reuters in an interview that he would not give up until the group’s grievances over federal land rights were addressed.

Law enforcement surrounded the refuge and blocked off access roads on Tuesday evening, after occupation leader Ammon Bundy and his group were taken into custody at a traffic stop along Highway 395.

Citing the investigation, authorities declined to say what led to the fatal shooting of one member of Bundy’s group, identified by activists as Robert LaVoy Finicum, a rancher who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers. Bundy’s brother, Ryan, was wounded in the incident.

At a news conference in Burns, Oregon, on Wednesday morning Greg Bretzing, FBI special agent in charge of the agency’s Portland office, said that authorities wanted a peaceful end to the situation and that the remaining occupiers were “free to leave” the refuge.

“Let me be clear: It is the actions and choices of the armed occupiers of the refuge that have lead us to where we are today,” Bretzing 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.”

Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, his voice breaking, said at the news conference: “I’m disappointed that a traffic stop yesterday that was supposed to bring peaceful resolution to this ended badly. Multiple law enforcement agencies put a lot of work into putting together the best tactical plan they could, to take these guys down peacefully …

“If it was as simple as just waiting out some folks down there to get out of some buildings, we could have waited a lot longer,” Ward said. “But this has been tearing our community apart. It’s time for everybody in this illegal occupation to move on. There doesn’t have to be bloodshed in our community.”

“THIS CAN’T HAPPEN ANYMORE”

Ward said if the occupiers had legitimate grievances with the government, they should use the “appropriate manner” to address them.

“This can’t happen anymore. This can’t happen in America and it can’t happen in Harney County,” he said.

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.

On Wednesday morning an occupier posted what appeared to be a live feed from the refuge on a YouTube page called “DefendYourBase.” In it, a few occupiers, some dressed in camouflage, were seen in front of what appeared to be a heavy-duty 320D excavator, at least two of them carrying firearms.

One man spoke on a phone with a person he identified as his mother and offered her reassurance.

“If I die, I died for my country, I died a free man,” he said. “That’s how I want to die.” The man added that his group had “food and everything for the long haul.”

The Malheur takeover, which started Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

Bundy’s father, Cliven, was a key figure in a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials over unpaid grazing fees in Nevada.

The arrests and shooting have angered anti-government protesters across the country, said Mike Vanderboegh, a gun-rights activist active in self-proclaimed militia circles. “It’s all I can do to keep people from going and shooting feds right now,” he told Reuters.

Vanderboegh said the FBI had acted too quickly to end a situation that was already headed toward peaceful resolution.

Amid concerns that Finicum’s killing could escalate into further violence, the Pacific Patriots Network, Oath Keepers and the Idaho III% – all self-styled militia groups sympathetic to the occupiers – said in a joint statement they were issuing an immediate “stand by” order to followers.

“During this time, cooler heads must prevail,” the statement said. “We do not wish to inflame the current situation and will engage in open dialogue until all of the facts have been gathered.”

Federal officials say they had probable cause to arrest Finicum, who told NBC News earlier this month that he would rather die than be detained.

Those arrested face federal charges of conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to impede federal officers from discharging their duties, the FBI said. They were scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Wednesday afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Jonathan Allen, Melissa Fares, Amy Tennery and Ed Tobin in New York and Andy Sullivan and Julia Edwards in Washington, D.C.; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Trott)

Oregon governor blasts federal response to refuge standoff

(Reuters) – Oregon’s governor blasted the federal government’s response to the occupation of a wildlife refuge by a group of armed men saying the situation was “absolutely intolerable” and costing the state about $100,000 a week.

Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, said she had been asked by federal officials to limit her public comments about the protest which began on Jan. 2 at the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and that she had no wish to escalate the situation.

“But I will say this … The situation is absolutely intolerable and it must be must be resolved immediately. The very fabric of this community is being ripped apart,” Brown said on Wednesday at a news conference.

“The residents of Harney County have been overlooked and under-served by federal officials’ response thus far.”

The takeover at Malheur was the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over the U.S. government’s control of millions acres of land in the West.

The occupiers have declared their move is in support of two local ranchers who were returned to prison this month for setting fires that spread to federal land. The ranchers’ lawyer has said the occupiers do not speak for the family.

Law enforcement officials have so far kept their distance from the buildings at the refuge, 30 miles south of the small town of Burns in rural southeast Oregon’s Harney County, in the hope of avoiding a violent confrontation.

One of the occupiers was arrested last week after he drove a government vehicle to a local supermarket.

Brown called the situation a “spectacle of lawlessness” which must end and said she had conveyed her very grave concerns to the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House.

“Federal authorities must move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable,” the governor said. “And until Harney County is free of it, I will not stop insisting that federal officials enforce the law.”

The chair of the local Native American tribe has also called on the federal government to remove the occupiers.

Brown said the standoff was costing Oregon about $100,000 per week, mostly in additional law enforcement costs, and that she has asked her finance officials to “scour the budget” so they could subsidize the expense to Harney County.

“We will be asking federal officials to reimburse the state for these costs,” she said.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis in Denver; Editing by Alan Crosby)