FBI agents investigated over shots fired during fatal standoff with Oregon occupier
http://personalliberty.com/fbi-agents-investigated-over-shots-fired-during-fatal-standoff-with-oregon-occupier/Posted on March 8, 2016 by Tribune News Service Views: 136
Occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters walk around the grounds of the facility on Jan. 6, 2016 near Burns, Ore.
An elite FBI hostage rescue team is under investigation after officials said they have been unable to determine exactly who shot at Oregon occupier LaVoy Finicum during a fatal showdown in January.
Officials said Tuesday that Oregon State Police troopers were justified when they fatally shot Finicum on Jan. 26 as state and federal law enforcement sprang a trap on the leaders of a lengthy armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore.
But investigators also revealed Tuesday that they have not been able to account for all the shots fired during the incident, which has led the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation into the FBI agents at the scene.
The development is likely to inflame supporters of the armed group, which had taken over the refuge Jan. 2 to protest the federal government’s administration of public lands and the prosecution of two local ranchers.
During the traffic stop, Finicum, who had previously hinted at his willingness to die for the armed protest, sped away after law enforcement pulled him over.
Officials revealed Tuesday that Oregon State Troopers had fired at Finicum’s truck three times as he then approached a law enforcement road block “at a high rate of speed” and nearly hit a law enforcement officer.
After Finicum drove into a snow bank and the vehicle came to a halt, he got out of his truck almost immediately and Oregon state troopers fired three more times, fatally wounding Finicum as he allegedly reached for his handgun, according to officials.
“All six shots fired by the Oregon State Police, the three into the truck and the three that struck Mr. Finicum, are justified,” Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said in a statement, the Oregonian reported.
But investigators said that law enforcement also fired one or two additional shots at Finicum’s truck after it crashed and before he got out, neither of which struck Finicum, the FBI said in a statement.
“The question of who fired these shots has not been resolved,” the FBI said in a statement, saying it had “contacted our Inspection Division, which notified the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General, which is currently investigating this matter.”
The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General confirmed that the FBI’s hostage rescue team was under investigation, but declined to provide further details.
The armed occupation of the refuge ended Feb. 11 after the final holdouts surrendered to the law enforcement officials who had surrounded the refuge.
The refuge has since become a sprawling crime scene as the federal government prosecutes dozens of men and women with felony conspiracy charges in connection to the occupation and to a similar showdown with federal officials in Nevada in 2014.
