Eyewitness Says Feds Ambushed Bundys, 100 Shots Fired at Passengers, Lavoy Finicum Killed With ‘Hands Up’
Patrick
Henningsen
Last
night, the standoff at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge outside
Burns, Oregon took a rather ugly turn which resulted in one man shot
dead and another wounded by federal agents.
The
latest incident took place as two vehicles carrying protesters, led
by Ammon
Bundy,
were en route to a community meeting in the nearby town of John Day
in Oregon.
According
to numerous mainstream media reports and local media outlet Oregon
Live,
‘federal sources’ are telling the media that only “3 shots were
fired”, but a new eye witness testimony by one of the vehicle’s
passengers tells a very different story.
While
the mainstream media is still referring to the event as “a
shoot-out”, according to this latest eye witness account at the
scene – no
shots were fired by vehicle passengers.
According
to eyewitness Victoria
Sharp,
18 yrs old, from Kansas, who was a passenger in the same truck driven
by Arizona rancher Robert
‘Lavoy’ Finicum,
along with Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne and Shawna Cox – dozens of
federal vehicles and countless agents were waiting for the group,
pre-positioned at a point along the isolated rural Highway
395,
before intercepting the group and detaining 8 persons, including
brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who were booked into Multnomah County
Jail early this morning.
Sharp
confirmed that the passengers
never drew weapons and
attempted to get out of their vehicles before federal agents
fired “at
least 120 shots altogether” at
the vehicle carrying her party.
Federal
agents fired their first shots at passenger and militia leader, Ryan
Payne, as he attempted to make contact with the agents by sticking
his head and hands out of the window, at which point Payne got back
inside the vehicle.
Payne
then exited the truck and was detained before driver Finicum advanced
the vehicle further down the road before sliding into a snow bank on
the side of the road.
A
second vehicle, a Jeep with passengers including Ammon Bundy, had
already been stopped by authorities, with its all passengers taken
into custody with no one harmed.
A
third vehicle driving approximately one mile ahead at the front of
the convoy, carrying Sharp’s mother and young siblings, was allowed
to pass through the police roadblocks without incident.
Finicum
then attempted to drive around the next federal road block, but lostcontrol of the vehicle before careening into snow piled on the road’s
hard shoulder.
After
crashing into the snow bank on the side of the highway, the driver,
54 yr old Arizona resident, Lavoy Finicum (photo, above), then exited
the vehicle, visibly upset and with his hands in the air, before
being gunned down by federal agents. Finicum was walking with his
hands in the air, daring federal agents, “Just
shoot me! Just shoot me” –
at which point the agents shot him dead. The witness testimony
indicates that his hands were still in the air.
Numerous
‘red dots’ from lasers could be seen pointed on the passengers by
federal marksmen, in what was described by this witness as an
“ambush” by federal authorities. Sharps said, “I had 20 lasers
on me when I got out of the car.”
She
also confirmed that Ryan Bundy was shot and wounded in the arm by
federal agents was shot while still
inside the
truck.
Federal
forces then followed-up by firing CS tear gas rounds around the
vehicle, apparently in an attempt to further disable the remaining
passengers.
At
least 40 federal vehicles, as well as many armed federal agents
including some seen emerging from the surrounding forest along
the highway, should leave little doubt as to the scale and nature of
the operation.
According
to local
media reports:
“The highway was blocked for a 40-mile stretch between Burns
and John Day. Police were stationed near Seneca, a small city of 200
south of John Day, with long guns. They said they didn’t know how
long the roadblock would be in place. Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer was there.”
Listen
to Ms. Sharp’s harrowing testimony here:
.
Conflicting
Accounts
Reporter Les
Zaitz from Oregon
Live,
a key source of mainstream media information from the Refuge protest,
did not give prominence to Victoria Sharp’s account in his article,
but instead chose to lead with and highlight the secondhand account
of the other vehicle’s passenger Mark
McConnell who
claimed that unarmed victim Lavoy Finicum “charged
at law enforcement”before
being shot. Zaitz’s article even admits that McConnell’s vehicle
was at least 200 yards behind the truck driven by Finicum.
Incredibly,
Oregonian Zaitz appears to favor McConnell’s account on the basis
that his account has “matched accounts from law enforcement
sources.” McConnell issued his version of events after being
released from law enforcement custody, where he spoke for 2 hours
with federal agents.
Tabloid
news site Raw
Story also
ran with a similar narrative with a deceptive headline that read
“Eyewitnesses
knock down conspiracy theories about LaVoy Finicum…“,
referring to secondhand accounts by McConnell and colleague, Melvin
Lee.
As
it turns out, Mark McConnell did
not actually see the shooting,
and instead had ‘pieced together’ his account, as evidenced by
his own statement later posted
online:
…”going
off of w
hat Shawna Cox and Ryan Payne were saying, which were in the
vehicle, um, Visually, I seen the truck take off, you know, now any
time someone takes off in a vehicle away from law enforcement after
they exercise a stop, it’s typically considered an act of
aggression and foolish. Payne said while they were sitting there and
they were clearing my vehicle that him and LeVoy had a heated
discussion…”
“…but
he took off they had to chase him, and from what Shawna Cox was
saying… from inside of his truck that when he exited the vehicle…
he charged after law enforcement….”
“What
I do know to be true, from what Payne said and what Shawna said taken
pieces here and pieces there and from what I witnessed, um, I didn’t
see the shooting, um, he was not on his knees, he was not, none of
that non sense, that was a miscommunication on somebody else’s part
but he went after em, he charged em.”
Here,
McConnell is, in effect, issuing a proxy statement on behalf of
Victoria Sharp’s fellow passengers, Shawn Cox and Ryan Payne. This
is hardly admissible, as both Cox and Payne are currently in federal
custody and are not able to verify the accuracy of McConnell
reiteration. And yet, mainstream media outlets are propping-up
McConnell’s account, while minimizing Sharp’s.
After
speculating about the shooting, McConnell then says,
“… I didn’t see it, and I’m not going to speculate on it.”
McConnell
is said to have been driving in the rear vehicle with Ammon Bundy and
his private security, Brian Cavalier.
UPDATE
1-28-2016: On
Wednesday evening, CNN International released a report based on an
“anonymous government source” claiming that Finicum was killed by
federal agents because he was “reaching towards his waistband.”
The Washington
Post then
re-spun the story, and rather incredibly – is relying on the very
same secondhand story presented by Mark McConnell, in a desperate
attempt to prop-up the government’s version of events:
“In
the moments before he was shot by authorities Tuesday aftern
oon,
Finicum led a high-speed getaway attempt. He then reached for
his waistband, prompting authorities to open fire, according to a
CNN report.
The
report, which cites anonymous law enforcement officials but has not
been confirmed by The Washington Post, is corroborated by
a statement from an occupier who said he was traveling
with Finicum at the time of the traffic stop.”
The
fact the media have chosen to label this incident as a “traffic
stop” indicates
an obvious agenda designed to minimize the obvious – that this was
a pre-planned, elaborate ambush by the FBI and Oregon State Police.
This
same unnamed “source” cited by CNN is also told the network that
the incident was indeed captured on video by the FBI, but that
authorities “have not decided whether or not the release the
video.” (see more breaking updates on this development below)
Federal
Escalation
This
shocking turn of events comes just days after Oregon governor Kate
Brown issued
what some might consider to be a
veiled threat to
the protesters and militia, saying that the federal government “must
move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers
accountable.”
Reports
last week indicated
that the governor had personally written the
White House and President Obama, which specifically addressed
Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI director James Comey, in which
Brown expressed her outrage that Harney County and the state of
Oregon was not being recognized for its ‘collaborative
achievements’, but rather for “outsiders seeking to exploit and
manipulate a local matter for their own agenda.”
Ammon
Edward Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho
Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of
Bunkerville, Nevada
Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville,
Nevada
Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah
Ryan Waylen Payne,
32, of Anaconda, Montana
Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of
Cottonwood, Arizona
After
the federal operation on Highway 395, in a separate incident back at
the Wildlife Refuge, YouTube and internet radio personality, Peter
Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio, approached the venue and walked
towards federal agents before being taken into custody.
BREAKING: Booking photos of Ammon Bundy, 7 others after arrest near Burns. http://koin.com/2016/01/26/malheur-militia-law-enforcement-01262016/ …
#KOIN6News
Those
still in detention are scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday
in U.S. District Court in Portland.
According
to reports,
FBI agents in Phoenix also “made
a probable cause arrest of Jon Eric Ritzheimer, age 32, on a federal
charge related to the armed occupation of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon.”
Jon
Ritzheimer,
another controversial YouTube
personality and
former US Marine, appears to have left the Malheur Refuge
right before the
federal operation to apprehend the protesters, when he returned to
his home in Peoria, Arizona.
Back
at the Refuge protest site, the FBI are said to be negotiating with
remaining 8 to 10 occupiers inside, with reports that most women and
minors have already left the site.
Three
weeks ago, Finicum, who become the protest’s media
spokesperson, made
a prophetic statement on camera saying that,
“There are things more important than your life, and freedom is one
of them.” Watch:
UPDATE
1-28-2016: Any
public distrust or skepticism of the federal authorities would
immediately be dispelled by speed release of all video footage (with
dozens of agents and surveillance, there should have been more than
one video feed taken, including body and gun sight cameras) of the
event. Whether or not, and how fast this will happen remains to be
seen.
UPDATE 1-29-2016
at 01:30PM ET: Due
to public pressure and intense speculation about the events of
Tuesday evening, and also because of the YouTube recording of eye
witness 18 yr old Victoria Sharp, the FBI has released the unedited
aerial video footage from Tuesday evening’s incident which took
place along Highway 395 here.
According
to the official FBI statement: “We
feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the
interest of transparency.”
The
FBI video entitled, “Complete,
Unedited Video of Joint FBI and OSP Operation 01/26/2016″, does
show the victim Lavoy Finicum exiting the truck awkwardly in at least
two feet of snow, and he clearly does not “charge
towards” the
SWAT team, and his hands are clearly held high above his head as he
exits his truck when confronted by a SWAT team, before being shot
multiple times by marksmen and falling in the snow. Also, the scale
and size of this operation is very evident by the footage, and the
apprehension of the protesters was not the result of a mere“traffic
stop” as
erroneously characterized in multiple mainstream media reports.
On
its own, this FBI drone footage would appear to support previous
government and media claims by CNN, Washington Post and others that
the victim was indeed “reaching towards his waistband” which gave
federal and state police justification to unleash deadly force.
However, it is still not completely clear from this aerial footage
whether or not Finicum was holstered (he is said to normally carry a
gun on the right hip, but FBI are claiming he had a 9mm gun in
his inside left breast pocket), but also whether or not he
lowered his arms before, or
after he
was shot multiple times. For example, if Finicum had his hands in the
air and was then was shot in the abdomen first, then any man’s
natural reaction would be to then lower his hand(s) and clutch
the wound. Additionally, if any shots were fired, even in the
vicinity, then confusion could have ensued which might have
prompted Finicum to reach for his weapon. Either way, it is
impossible to make any such a forensic determination without a
corresponding audio
track – which
would help to determine if any shots were fired before Finicum’s
hand(s) could be seen lowering.
WARNING:
Images depict violence which some viewers may find disturbing. Watch
here:
Finicum then attempted to drive around the next federal road block, but lostcontrol of the vehicle before careening into snow piled on the road’s hard shoulder.
Conflicting Accounts
Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nevada
Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada
Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah
Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Montana
Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Arizona
Brent Weisberg
BREAKING: Booking photos of Ammon Bundy, 7 others after arrest near Burns. http://koin.com/2016/01/26/malheur-militia-law-enforcement-01262016/ …
FBI Release Oregon Video Footage Depicting Death of Robert Lavoy Finicum – But Questions Remain
21st
Century Wire says..
UPDATE
1-29-2016 at 01:30PM ET: Due
to public pressure and intense speculation about the events of
Tuesday brought on by a YouTube recording
of the testimony of
key eyewitness Victoria Sharp, the FBI has released the unedited
aerial video footage from Tuesday evening’s incident which took
place along Highway 395.
According
to the official FBI statement: “We
feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the
interest of transparency.”
The
FBI video entitled, “Complete,
Unedited Video of Joint FBI and OSP Operation 01/26/2016″, does
show the victim Lavoy Finicum exiting the truck awkwardly in at least
two feet of snow, and he clearly does not “charge
towards” the
SWAT team, and his hands are clearly held high above his head as he
exits his truck when confronted by a SWAT team, before being shot
multiple times by marksmen and falling in the snow. Also, the scale
and size of this operation is very evident by the footage, and the
apprehension of the protesters was not the result of a mere“traffic
stop” as
it was wrongly characterized in multiple
mainstream media reports.
The
FBI has also titled their release as “unedited” which shows a
window of 26 min and 29 seconds, but it would be interesting to see
any drone footage prior to where their clip begins, to further
determine how long the drone was filming the vehicles of Finicum and
Bundy. This is important because it would shed further light the
premeditated nature of the confrontation that the media and
government ‘sources’ have called a ‘traffic stop’.
On
its own, this FBI drone footage would appear to support previous
government and media claims by CNN, Washington Post and others that
the victim was indeed “reaching towards his waistband” which gave
federal and state police justification to unleash deadly force.
However, it is still not completely clear from this aerial footage
whether or not Finicum was holstered (he is said to normally carry a
gun on the right hip, but FBI are claiming he had a 9mm gun in
his inside left breast pocket), but also whether or not he
lowered his arms before, or
after he
was shot multiple times. For example, if Finicum had his hands in the
air and was then was shot in the abdomen first, then any man’s
natural reaction would be to then lower his hand(s) and clutch
the wound. Additionally, if any shots were fired, even in the
vicinity, then confusion could have ensued which might have
prompted Finicum to reach for his weapon. Either way, it is
impossible to make any such a forensic determination without a
corresponding audio
track – which
would help to determine if any shots were fired before Finicum’s
hand(s) could be seen lowering.
WARNING: The
following images depict violence and death which some readers may
find disturbing. Watch:
Watch
the edited version here:
.
Watch the ‘unedited’ video here:
.
Finicum
was known to carry a Colt 45 on his right hip, but according to the
FBI statement, Finicum is said to have reached toward his left pocket
with his right hand. “Finicum
did have a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in that pocket,” the
FBI stated.
Finicum
appears to temporarily lose his balance in the snow at the very
moment he looks to be hit by agents.
What
is clear however from this video is that armed agents did not shoot
to disable their
suspect, but shot to kill and even had a laser sight trained on him
for many minutes after he was downed. Clearly, multiple SWAT shooters
could be seen emerging from the woods. After killing Finicum, police
then left the victim to bleed to death laying in the snow and did not
check on him for at least another 8 minutes.
Flash-bang
rounds can be seen around the 14:00 mark of the FBI’s ‘unedited’
version, and the FBI has said that it fired CS gas and ‘non lethal
rounds’ (possibly pepper spray rounds, or rubber bullets) are said
to have been fired at the truck while the passengers were inside.
This begs the question: with nonlethal rounds already in play – why
did multiple SWAT shooters use so many deadly rounds against Finicum
when he exited the truck with his hands up?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.