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Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Oregon militia shootout: One killed as armed protest leader Ammon Bundy is arrested during traffic stop
The leader of an armed Oregon militia occupying a US wildlife refuge
and six others have been arrested in a deadly shootout following a
traffic stop.
Ammon Bundy and some of his followers were
travelling to a community meeting in John Day along Highway 395 when
they were stopped by the FBI and state police.
Shots were fired, killing one associate of the militia and injuring Bundy's brother, Ryan, officials said.
The
Bundy siblings and three other leaders of the group - Brian Cavalier,
Shawna Cox and Ryan Payne - were subsequently arrested by police.
Protesters
were still occupying the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in
eastern Oregon after the arrests, a law enforcement official told
Reuters.
Meanwhile, the FBI was setting up a perimeter.
Getty
Protest: Bundy walks through the entrance of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters in Burns, Oregon
The takeover at Malheur that began on January 2 is the latest
flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict
over the US government's control of millions acres of land in the West.
Bundy
and the four leaders of the occupation remain into custody following
the confrontation along Highway 395 in northeast Oregon around 4.25pm
local time (00.25am GMT), officials said.
A sixth individual was arrested by the Oregon State Police in Burns, Oregon, about one-and-a-half hours later
The
FBI said a seventh person was later arrested, 50-year-old Peter
Santilli, an independent journalist who livestreamed events at the
refuge.
All of those arrested face federal charges of conspiracy
to use force, intimidation or threats to impede federal officers from
discharging their duties, the FBI said.
Click to pl
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The Oregonian reported that Bundy had been en route to a
community meeting in John Day, Oregon, with several other members of the
occupation, where he was scheduled to be a guest speaker, when
authorities stopped his vehicle.
The newspaper said 43-year-old Ryan Bundy suffered a minor gunshot wound in the arrest.
Authorities
did not release the identity of the person killed, but added that he
was the subject of a federal probable cause arrest.
Some 25 miles
of Highway 395 was shut down in both directions following the incident,
a dispatcher for the state department of transportation said
The highway was expected to remain closed as authorities investigate the shooting.
The
occupiers of the wildlife refuge said they were supporting two local
ranchers who were returned to prison this month for setting fires that
spread to federal land.
Rex
Drawing a crowd: Bundy talks with local residents who had gathered next to a fire outside the wildlife refuge
The ranchers' lawyer has said the occupiers do not speak for the family.
Burns
Mayor Craig LaFollette told Reuters that while he had limited
information about the night's events, he hoped the stand-off would come
to a peaceful end.
"I think my perception is that people's
patience was running thin and that the community as a whole was looking
for some resolution and to have these people leave," he said.
Law
enforcement officials had largely kept their distance from the
buildings at the refuge, 30 miles south of the small town of Burns in
rural southeast Oregon's Harney County, in the hope of avoiding a
violent confrontation.
Local residents have expressed a mixture
of sympathy for the Hammond family, suspicion of the federal
government's motives and frustration with the occupation.
Mirror
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