redred
01-27-2016, 08:10 AM
http://i.imgur.com/X3oRn5v.jpg
US police say they have arrested the leader of an armed militia which has occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon, with one person killed in a shoot-out.
Ammon Bundy and four others were arrested during a traffic stop. One person was injured. Three others were held in separate incidents.
The militia occupied the refuge this month to support two ranchers jailed for setting fire to federal land.
They say the government has taken land illegally from ranchers for decades.
Other members of the group were reportedly still at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, where the FBI was setting up a perimeter.
On Oregon's snowy plains, over the past few weeks, there has been some sympathy for the leaders of the occupation. Many people in the little town of Burns said they understood the militia's message about federal government "interference."
The federal government is not popular with ranchers in Harney County who accuse it of failing to respect a distinct way of life. But there was also hostility to the tactics employed by Ammon Bundy and his followers.
Armed militiamen rumbling in and out of town to gather supplies made residents nervous. So, too, did the presence of the FBI. The community had repeatedly asked the militia to leave but law enforcement officials had come in for criticism, too, accused of passivity in the face of flagrant criminality.
In recent days the pressure had mounted, with Oregon's Governor Kate Brown writing to the White House to demand federal action to end the stand-off. But with both sides heavily armed, violence was always a possibility when, and if, that moment came.
FBI officials said in a statement that Mr Bundy, 40, was arrested in a traffic stop on Highway 395 along with his brother Ryan Bundy, 43, Bryan Cavalier, 44, Shawna Cox, 59, and Ryan Walen Payne, 32.
Two other activists connected to the group, Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50, were later arrested, separately, in Burns, Oregon.
Each of the defendants faces a charge of conspiracy to impede police from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats, the FBI said.
According to the Oregonian newspaper, Mr Bundy was en route to a community meeting in John Day, Oregon, where he was scheduled to be a guest speaker, when authorities stopped his vehicle.
The newspaper said Ryan Bundy was injured in the arrest, suffering a minor gunshot wound. Authorities did not release the identity of the person killed.
However, local media named the man as Arizona native Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, a regular spokesman for the group.
His daughter, Arianna Finicum Brown, told The Oregonian he was a "good, good man, through and through".
Another occupier of the refuge, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, surrendered to police in Arizona on Tuesday night.
Some 25 miles (40 km) of Highway 395 was shut in both directions following the incident, local officials said.
Mr Bundy and a right-wing militia group occupied the refuge on 2 January to protest against the imprisonment of two ranchers in rural Harney County.
Dwight and Steven Hammond had set fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, they say to clear invasive plants and protect their land from wildfires. A federal judge in October ruled their initial sentences were too short and jailed them for about four years each.
The pair have distanced themselves from the militia movement and although many residents are sympathetic with its cause, many also oppose the occupation of the refuge.
Analysts say security forces took a low-key approach to the Oregon stand-off, fearful of a repetition of the bloody end to the siege at Waco in Texas in 1993.
My Bundy and his brother are sons of rancher Clive Bundy, who was in 2014 involved in a stand-off over grazing rights between armed anti-government activists and federal officials.
The militia includes people from many areas, including, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan.
US police say they have arrested the leader of an armed militia which has occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon, with one person killed in a shoot-out.
Ammon Bundy and four others were arrested during a traffic stop. One person was injured. Three others were held in separate incidents.
The militia occupied the refuge this month to support two ranchers jailed for setting fire to federal land.
They say the government has taken land illegally from ranchers for decades.
Other members of the group were reportedly still at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, where the FBI was setting up a perimeter.
On Oregon's snowy plains, over the past few weeks, there has been some sympathy for the leaders of the occupation. Many people in the little town of Burns said they understood the militia's message about federal government "interference."
The federal government is not popular with ranchers in Harney County who accuse it of failing to respect a distinct way of life. But there was also hostility to the tactics employed by Ammon Bundy and his followers.
Armed militiamen rumbling in and out of town to gather supplies made residents nervous. So, too, did the presence of the FBI. The community had repeatedly asked the militia to leave but law enforcement officials had come in for criticism, too, accused of passivity in the face of flagrant criminality.
In recent days the pressure had mounted, with Oregon's Governor Kate Brown writing to the White House to demand federal action to end the stand-off. But with both sides heavily armed, violence was always a possibility when, and if, that moment came.
FBI officials said in a statement that Mr Bundy, 40, was arrested in a traffic stop on Highway 395 along with his brother Ryan Bundy, 43, Bryan Cavalier, 44, Shawna Cox, 59, and Ryan Walen Payne, 32.
Two other activists connected to the group, Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50, were later arrested, separately, in Burns, Oregon.
Each of the defendants faces a charge of conspiracy to impede police from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats, the FBI said.
According to the Oregonian newspaper, Mr Bundy was en route to a community meeting in John Day, Oregon, where he was scheduled to be a guest speaker, when authorities stopped his vehicle.
The newspaper said Ryan Bundy was injured in the arrest, suffering a minor gunshot wound. Authorities did not release the identity of the person killed.
However, local media named the man as Arizona native Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, a regular spokesman for the group.
His daughter, Arianna Finicum Brown, told The Oregonian he was a "good, good man, through and through".
Another occupier of the refuge, Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, surrendered to police in Arizona on Tuesday night.
Some 25 miles (40 km) of Highway 395 was shut in both directions following the incident, local officials said.
Mr Bundy and a right-wing militia group occupied the refuge on 2 January to protest against the imprisonment of two ranchers in rural Harney County.
Dwight and Steven Hammond had set fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, they say to clear invasive plants and protect their land from wildfires. A federal judge in October ruled their initial sentences were too short and jailed them for about four years each.
The pair have distanced themselves from the militia movement and although many residents are sympathetic with its cause, many also oppose the occupation of the refuge.
Analysts say security forces took a low-key approach to the Oregon stand-off, fearful of a repetition of the bloody end to the siege at Waco in Texas in 1993.
My Bundy and his brother are sons of rancher Clive Bundy, who was in 2014 involved in a stand-off over grazing rights between armed anti-government activists and federal officials.
The militia includes people from many areas, including, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan.