Screen capture from the FBI video of the shooting of LaVoy Finicum.
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Accusations of “murder” and “assassination” have been swirling around the fatal shooting of Oregon protester LaVoy Finicum on the afternoon of Jan. 26 along a highway north of Burns and several miles from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge that had been occupied for three weeks by critics of federal land management.
Two days after the shooting of Finicum by Oregon State Police troopers at a roadblock, the FBI released an aerial video that followed Finicum’s vehicle up the highway from where it first sped away from a traffic stop. The 26-minute video shows Finicum running off the highway and into a deep snowbank, emerging with his hands and arms raised, but then apparently reaching toward his left side.
Many believe that Finicum was reacting to having been shot while others believe he was reaching for a concealed 9mm handgun found in the pocket of his coat after he was killed. There was no audio with the video, so it is impossible to say what happened and when.
Finicum was driving in a two-car caravan that had apparently been on its way to John Day when authorities pulled them over. In that caravan were protest leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy and several others who had been occupying a building at the wildlife refuge. Both of the Bundys were taken into custody along with five others.
But Finicum, who had told NBC that he had “no intention of spending any of my days in a concrete box” but he also said he would “never point a gun at somebody who’s not point a gun at me” drove away from the first traffic stop. His vehicle got about a mile before running into a roadblock.
There was an immediate outpouring of anger as people in the Patriot movement declared Finicum a martyr and murder victim. Various Internet chat forums and other social media – particularly Facebook – erupted with thousands of comments and sometimes angry exchanges.
The FBI released a lengthy statement that said, among other things, “Agents and troopers on scene had information that Finicum and others would be armed. On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in that pocket. At this time, OSP troopers shot Finicum.”
At the time he was shot, as the video clearly shows, Finicum was standing at least knee-deep in heavy snow, turning away from one officer with a drawn gun at the roadside and toward another who had emerged from a small stand of trees a few yards off the road. From the direction of his fall, it appears he was shot by the officer who came out from behind the trees.
Three other firearms were also recovered from Finicum’s truck, including two loaded .223-caliber semi-auto rifles and a .38 Special revolver that was also loaded, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing.
Into the middle of this controversy stepped nationally-syndicated radio talk host Lars Larson, who is based in Portland. Larson had not been sympathetic to the Bundy group, and he caught a lot of heat following the shooting. In his comments on Facebook, he wrote, “Tell me a good reason for a man facing officers with guns drawn to reach for a pocket with a loaded gun in it?”
Other critics of Finicum theorized that he “committed suicide by cop.”
On the other hand, supporters of the takeover group contended that this situation could ignite a “revolution” but there did not appear to be much happening in the wake of Finicum’s death.
