[ad_1]
In this composite with handout images provided by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, suspects (Top L) Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Ryan Waylen Payne, Brian Cavalier, (Bottom L) Peter Santilli, Joseph Donald OShaughnessy , and Shawna Cox pose for a mugshot photo after being arrested by U.S. Marshalls January 26, 2016 in Oregon. Ammon Bundy and seven others were arrested in a traffic stop along Highway 395 outside Burns, Oregon. One person was killed in the confrontation. Bundy led a group of armed followers, adopting the name Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, and occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Photo by Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images
The FBI and Oregon State Police have arrested members of a group of armed protesters that have taken over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for over three weeks, including leader Ammon Bundy, USA Today reports.
Authorities moved in on the group at around 4:25 p.m. PT Tuesday along Highway 395 during a traffic stop. Shots were fired, resulting in the death of one individual “who was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest,” a joint FBI-OSP release read.
Bundy Ranch said that Arizona resident Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who penned the novel Only by Blood and Suffering was shot and killed in the encounter.
Finicum’s ex-wife told USA Today that she learned from their children that he was killed.
“He did not mean any harm to anyone,” Whatcott told the site. “He believed fiercely in freedom. I know he carried around a holster and a gun, but he’s a cowboy.”
One other individual sustained non-life threatening injuries and was taken to the local hospital. He was later arrested and taken into custody.
Those arrested in the initial wave are identified as:
• Ammon Edward Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho
• Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nev.
• Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev.
• Shawna Cox, 59, Kanab, Utah
• Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.
This group was arrested as the militants were on their way to a planned meeting with community members, NPR notes.
Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz. was later taken into custody at around 5:50 p.m. and Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio was arrested at 6:30 p.m., also in Oregon.
One man, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, turned himself into the Peoria, Ariz., police department where the FBI’s Phoenix Division made a probable cause arrest at 8:30 p.m.
All of the aforementioned 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, NPR reports.
According to NPR, since the arrest, authorities have beefed up their presence at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore, where it is believed that at least 10 people are still occupying the property.
Read more at USA Today and NPR.
[ad_2]
