UPDATE 10 p.m.: The live stream that broadcast online what appears to be the last stage of the refuge occupation stopped after more than five hours. The phone feed ended as the occupiers headed to their night camp, preparing to surrender Thursday morning. They said they have a promise that the encircling FBI agents would leave them alone overnight.
BURNS – FBI agents in armored vehicles moved in Wednesday night on the last four occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, hemming them into their rough camp and insisting they put down their guns and surrender.
The occupiers rejected the demands for hours before one of them said they will turn themselves in at a checkpoint once a national religious figure and a Nevada state legislator arrive. It was scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday, but it wasn’t clear if the deal involved all of the four occupiers.
The standoff played out for hours through an open phone line being streamed to YouTube. At one point, an estimated 60,000 people listened as the occupiers displayed anger and panic, prayed with those on the phone and yelled at the FBI agents surrounding them.
They’re the remainders of a group of anti-government militants who took over the wildlife refuge headquarters Jan. 2. The four have been on their own since Jan. 28 — two days after the occupation leaders were arrested on a highway north of Burns and protest spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot and killed.
Those left at the refuge 30 miles southeast of Burns are David Fry, 27, of the Cincinnati area, Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada, Sean Anderson, 47, and his wife Sandy, 48, of Riggins, Idaho.
The live stream provided a remarkable front row seat for the nation to listen in as the holdouts faced the FBI move. At points, a phone left on inside the occupiers’ camp picked up demands from agents over loudspeakers.
“Come out with your hands up,” a law enforcement official was heard saying.
Two hours into the confrontation, Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore was heading to the refuge trying to negotiate for the group’s surrender and Christian evangelist Franklin Graham and others had offered to intercede on their behalf as well.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the father of jailed occupation leader Ammon Bundy, also appeared to be heading to Burns, according to the “Official Bundy Ranch” Facebook page.
In a statement, the FBI said one of the occupiers rode an ATV outside their encampment at 4:30 p.m. When FBI agents tried to approach the driver, he returned “at a high rate of speed” to the camp. Agents then moved into position ahead and behind “the area where the occupiers are camping.”
The FBI said negotiations were underway and that “no shots have been fired.”
The holdouts all face arrest on a federal charge of conspiracy for their roles in the armed occupation. They are among 16 indicted on that charge. They were told they had to surrender.
“There’s nowhere for you to go,” one officer was heard saying.
Fry shouted back, “We’re leaving tomorrow.”
In a statement released in the middle of the showdown, Greg Bretzing, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Oregon, said: “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.”
But, Bretzing said, “we reached a point where it became necessary to take action in a way that best ensured the safety of those on the refuge, the law enforcement officers who are on scene, and the people of Harney County who live and work in this area.”
FBI tactical teams had quietly moved into the refuge compound Tuesday night, entering the buildings undetected by the occupiers. They apparently were in the buildings through the day Wednesday before agents moved against the encampment.
The occupiers talked over each other as the call moderator, identified on the Youtube feed as Gavin Seim, tried to sort out the identities and relayed calls for help to outside parties.
“Just hang in there,” he said as he tried to give the occupiers encouragement and calm them down.
At one point on the audio, Sean Anderson was heard yelling, “Did your boss send you here to kill innocent Americans?”
At another point, an agent over a loudspeaker said: “David, I want to talk to you.”
“What do you want?” Fry replied, then yelled, “You guys killed LaVoy” and “You let Obama bring terrorists into our country.”
Sean Anderson said there were five armored vehicles around the camp. “They have way more guns than us. We need help. … We will not fire until we’re fired upon,” he said.
Anderson also was heard saying: “Mark, you promised and you lied again,” apparently referring to an FBI negotiator.
His wife chimed in that the four have been asked to put down their guns, but “our weapons are at our sides.”
They said they had planned to meet Thursday with Fiore and that they had been told Cliven Bundy would appear as well. They also said they wanted someone to get in touch with Graham, the son of Billy Graham who had been in touch with the occupiers at one point.
“You promised Franklin Graham you wouldn’t do this,” Sandy Anderson. Graham runs the North Carolina-based evangelical organization named after his father.
Graham later called in, reaching Sean Anderson. Graham offered to be at the refuge at 7 a.m. Thursday to join the occupiers in walking out to surrender, Anderson said. It was unclear if the FBI would entertain such an offer. The occupiers reported that they were told by the FBI that no one else would be allowed onto the refuge.
Even then, Sandy Anderson seemed to balk at surrendering. “I am not going to jail for standing up for my rights,” she said.
“If my wife says she’s not leaving, I’m not leaving,” her husband said.
Earlier in the night, Sean Anderson said that the occupiers would shoot only if fired upon. He said they all expected to be killed.
“And it’s not self-inflicted wounds either,” Sandy Anderson said.
Fry yelled, “You don’t need to go to hell for killing us.”
They prayed at one point, and Sean Anderson repeatedly asked those listening in to the broadcast to pray.
Later, Sandy Anderson yelled: “They got ahold of another legislator!” when she was told Washington state Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley had been reached by supporters outside the refuge. Shea had been part of a group of state legislators who visited the site in late January.
As the standoff continued, Fiore, the Nevada assemblywoman, got on the live stream line to offer to negotiate between the occupiers and the FBI. Fiore had just arrived in Portland and was scheduled to appear Thursday at a news conference in support of Ammon Bundy. For hours, Fiore stayed on the line as she rode in a car with other state legislators in a race to reach the refuge and walk the occupiers out.
Over and over, Fiore stopped the conversation to lead or ask someone to lead the group in prayer. The Andersons were the most frequently heard voices. At one point, Banta talked with Fiore but only for moments and otherwise he could not be heard. Fry also disappeared from the feed, apparently stepping away from the phone to deal with the FBI agents surrounding them.
For a time, Fry was on a second phone talking to an FBI negotiator. He was apparently told that the agent wouldn’t talk to the legislator. Only Fry’s part of the conversation was audible.
“I will come to the refuge,” Fiore said. “They have to let someone to negotiate. We cannot afford more bloodshed.”
She urged the four to keep calm as she tried to get directly to the FBI by phone.
“Listen, we’re not coming out,” Fry was heard saying on the phone to the FBI negotiator. “You need to find another option.”
Fiore told the occupiers that she needs Gov. Kate Brown or Harney County Sheriff David Ward to intercede to get her to the refuge.
“There is no reason to shoot you,” Fiore told the group.
But Sean Anderson said they feared being shot anyway.
“We will hold them accountable in the courts like they hold us accountable,” Fiore said.
“Listen, listen,” she said, trying to keep the occupiers focused on her.
She told them that some of the defendants in the case have been released from jail after their arrest while the charges are pending. “The Constitution is there to protect the people from the government,” she said.
At that point, Sandy Anderson said the armored vehicles were moving closer, prompting Fiore to urge her to take a deep breath and pray with her. In the background, Fry can be heard yelling at the FBI agents.
Earlier as the occupiers tried to reach someone that could help them, Sean Anderson said, “Someone call Sheriff Palmer,” referring to Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer.
His wife echoed him: “Call Sheriff Palmer.”
Palmer met twice with occupation leaders in his neighboring county and was to share the stage with the key figures at a community meeting when the arrests and Finicum shooting took place on U.S. 395 about 20 miles north of Burns. He has come under criticism for his apparent support of the militants.
People were calling the sheriff’s office and the John Day dispatch center, which handles calls for Grant County police agencies, urging that Palmer intercede.
Ammon Bundy and other occupation leaders originally took over the headquarters compound of the federal wildlife refuge on Jan. 2 in support of two imprisoned local ranchers and in protest of federal land ownership. The compound has been cordoned off by law enforcement officials since Jan. 27.
The four holdouts have been camped in a parking area next to the complex of buildings. They have posted video reports off and on, showing their camp of pickup trucks and ATVs arranged in a rough circle, with tarps and tents providing shelter.
There have been repeated efforts to bring the occupation to a conclusion. Ammon Bundy, who participated in an armed standoff in 2014 at his father’s ranch over grazing fees, has issued written and taped statements through his attorneys urging the four to leave the refuge. The FBI has continued telephone negotiations for days, but Fry and the others have insisted they wouldn’t leave unless they had immunity from arrest.
Fry played a role throughout the occupation providing social media help to the protesters. The Andersons, transplants to Idaho from Wisconsin, had made several trips to the refuge since Bundy’s group took it over. Banta, a construction worker, arrived just the day before Bundy was arrested.
The FBI and state police set up a roadblock Jan. 26 on the highway between Burns and John Day as Bundy, occupation spokesman Finicum and several others traveled in a Jeep and truck to talk to people in Grant County about their cause. They took Bundy into custody without incident, but troopers shot Finicum when he got out of his truck and appeared to reach into a pocket, the FBI said. Finicum was carrying a loaded 9mm handgun, the FBI said.
A federal grand jury in Portland has returned indictments against Bundy and 15 others in the case, including the four holdouts, on one charge each of conspiracy to impede federal officers through intimidation, threats or force.
The indictments accuse them of conspiring to prevent employees of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from working at the refuge, taking over the property with guns and intimidating the people of Harney County.
All are accused of occupying the federal property “while using and carrying firearms,” threatening violence against anybody who attempted to remove them from the refuge and using social media and other means of communication to recruit and encourage others to join them.
The conspiracy charge is a felony and carries a maximum six-year prison sentence and fines.
