Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip
7 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about
[h=4]Armed Oregon standoff continues despite arrests[/h]Three protesters were arrested and 5 freed at a checkpoint outside the occupied refuge.
{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
The FBI arrested three more people in connection with the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The arrests come a day after eight armed protesters were taken into custody. USA TODAY
Law enforcement personnel work at the airport Jan. 27, 2016, in Burns, Ore. Authorities were restricting access on Wednesday to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge being occupied by an armed group.(Photo: Beth Nakamura, AP)
BURNS,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ore. — A small group of holdouts continued the tense standoff at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, one day after eight others<span style="color: Red;">*</span>abandoned the site as federal, state and local authorities tightened their grip on the armed occupation.
Duane Leo Ehmer, 45, of Irrigon, Ore., and Dylan Wade Anderson,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>34, of Provo, Utah, and Jason S. Patrick, 43, of Bonaire, Ga., were arrested at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>checkpoints manned by the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>FBI and Oregon State Police, the FBI said. Five others were not arrested.
Eleven occupiers have been arrested in the standoff that began Jan. 2 as a protest against federal<span style="color: Red;">*</span>management of local land.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Each faces one federal felony charge<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>or threats.
USA TODAY
Utah ranchers gather in vigil for Ore. protester killed in FBI crackdown
Law enforcement on Wednesday night<span style="color: Red;">*</span>set up a pair of large floodlights that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>lit up the road 7 miles from the refuge headquarters.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A father and son from Hermiston, Ore., who wanted to go to the refuge were turned away at gunpoint when they reached the checkpoint.
Protest leader Ammon Bundy, 40, was one of six protesters stopped Tuesday at a roadblock 20 miles from the refuge.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Robert "LaVoy"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Finicum,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>55, a soft-spoken but defiant Arizona rancher, was shot and killed. Officials refused to provide details, but his identity was confirmed by his family. Bundy and the other four protesters were taken into custody.
On Wednesday,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Bundy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>urged<span style="color: Red;">*</span>his<span style="color: Red;">*</span>followers to leave the refuge.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>His lawyer, Mike Arnold, read a statement by Bundy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on the steps of a courthouse in Portland.
Ammon Bundy speaks at a news conference at the entrance to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Rob Kerr, AFP/Getty Images)
"Right now, I am asking the federal government to allow the people at the refuge to go home without being prosecuted," the statement read. "To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down. Go home and hug your families. This fight is ours for now in the courts. Please go home."
USA TODAY
Ariz. militia figure Ritzheimer knew he faced arrest
Bundy's request came after mounting pressure from authorities for the protesters to abandon the site.
"They have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>chosen to threaten and intimidate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the America they profess to love<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and through their criminal<span style="color: Red;">*</span>actions bring these consequences upon themselves," Greg Bretzing, the FBI special agent in charge, said earlier Wednesday.
In a particularly emotional statement before<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reporters,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward spoke<span style="color: Red;">*</span>directly to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the remaining half-dozen holdouts at the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>refuge.
"It is time for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>everybody<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in this illegal occupation to move on," Ward said, stopping periodically to regain his composure. "There doesn't have to be bloodshed in our community. (When) we have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>issues with the way things<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are in our government, we have a responsibility as citizens to act on them in an appropriate manner. We don't arm up, we don't rebel. We work through the appropriate channels. This can't happen anymore, this can't<span style="color: Red;">*</span>happen in America, and it can't happen in Harney County."
USA TODAY
DOJ complaint lays out case against Oregon protesters
Ward said officials might have been able to wait longer to move against the protesters if they<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had not "created a lot of stress" in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the community.
LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona, speaks to the media.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP file)
Those<span style="color: Red;">*</span>arrested Tuesday included the Ammon, of Emmett, Idaho, and his brother<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ryan,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>43, of Bunkerville, Nev., along with Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville;<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Also arrested, at separate locations in Burns, Ore., near the refuge,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were Pete Santilli, host of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a conservative online radio show, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Ariz.
An eighth<span style="color: Red;">*</span>person,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was arrested after turning himself into police in Peoria, Ariz.
Bundy, head of an anti-government group, had been holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since Jan. 2, when he and his followers seized its headquarters south of Burns as part of a long-running dispute over public land use in the West.
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
Three weeks after a group of armed protestors occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon, the FBI and Oregon State Police moved in to arrest them. VPC
Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The elder Bundy said the fatal<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shooting of Finicum<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and the arrests should be a "wake-up call to America."
"This is a total disaster to be happening in America, where we have federal people killing innocent people," he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Las Vegas Review-Journal. "My sons were there to do good."
Stanglin reported from Arlington, Va.
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed