FBI says it has surrounded last occupiers at Oregon refuge
FBI says it has surrounded last occupiers at Oregon refuge
(35 minutes later)
PORTLAND, Ore. — The FBI said Wednesday it has moved to contain the last few occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge who were part of a protest that began more than a month ago over federal land policy.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The FBI surrounded the last four occupiers of a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon on Wednesday night as the holdouts argued with a negotiator and yelled at law enforcement officers in armored vehicles to back off.
In a statement, authorities said they placed agents at barricades both immediately ahead of and behind the area where the occupiers were camping. An acquaintance of occupier David Fry was livestreaming on YouTube what he said was an open phone line from the standoff. The occupiers said they were surrounded by armored vehicles. They can be heard arguing with someone they said was a negotiator.
The tense standoff between law enforcement officers and the four occupiers was being livestreamed on the Internet by an acquaintance of one of the holdouts, David Fry.
The four holdouts were the last remnants of an armed group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon on Jan. 2 to oppose federal land-use policies.
Fry, 27, sounded increasingly unraveled as he continually yelled, at times hysterically, at what he said was an FBI negotiator.
The FBI said that one of the occupiers rode an ATV on Wednesday afternoon outside the barricades “established by the militia” at the refuge. When agents tried to approach the driver, the FBI said he returned to their camp at a high rate of speed.
“You’re going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with,” he said. “We’re innocent people camping at a public facility, and you’re going to murder us.”
“It has never been the FBI’s desire to engage these armed occupiers in any way other than through dialogue, and to that end, the FBI has negotiated with patience and restraint in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully. However, we reached a point where it became necessary to take action in a way that best ensured the safety of those on the refuge,” Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement.
“The only way we’re leaving here is dead or without charges,” Fry said, who told the FBI to “get the hell out of Oregon.”
The four had refused to leave even after group leader Ammon Bundy and others were arrested on a remote road outside the refuge on Jan. 26. The traffic stop also led police to shoot and kill Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who the FBI says was reaching for a gun.
Fry said the group was surrounded by armored vehicles.
Authorities then surrounded the refuge and later got the holdouts added to an indictment charging 16 people with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers. The four previously said they would not leave without assurances they would not be arrested.
Fry and the three others are the last remnants of an armed group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 to oppose federal land-use policies.
They were: Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and married couple Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Riggins, Idaho.
Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement that the situation had reached a point where it “became necessary to take action” to ensure the safety of all involved.
They recently posted a series of defiant videos in which Fry shows a defensive perimeter they have built and takes a joyride in a government vehicle. Fry says the FBI told him he faces additional charges because of the barricades.
The four remained despite the arrests of group leader Ammon Bundy and others Jan. 26 on a remote road outside the refuge.
He said the four have “every right” to defend themselves against a government raid. Fry then drives around in a federally owned truck, saying, “Now you’ve got another charge on me FBI. I’m driving your vehicle.”
Another occupier, Sandy Anderson, said after the group was surrounded: “They’re threatening us. They’re getting closer. I pray that there’s a revolution if we die here tonight.”
His father, William Fry, has said he was disappointed that his son was charged, saying he is no different than those who believe “our country is heading in the wrong direction.”
Her husband and fellow occupier, Sean Anderson, said in the livestream: “We will not fire until fired upon. We haven’t broken any laws, came here to recognize our constitutional rights. Help us.”
Banta’s father, Willard Banta, has said he worried about how the takeover would end. But he sympathized with the occupiers’ frustrations with federal land managers, saying, “I support them 100 percent.”
The occupiers said they saw snipers on a hill and a drone.
At first, Bundy urged the last holdouts to go home. But in response to the grand jury indictment, he took a more defiant tone from jail.
Bundy called his jailed followers “political prisoners” who were trying to educate ranchers and others about their constitutional rights on federal lands and abuses by U.S. authorities.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
