Finicum clearly murdered by law enforcement, some say of new evidence in Oregon standoff case
New video of the police standoff that resulted in the death of Oregon wildlife refuge occupier LaVoy Finicum early this year is bringing into question law enforcement claims that agents shot as the activist reached for his gun.
The video does show Finicum, as officers claimed, saying that police should shoot him or allow him to proceed on the road for a meeting with an area sheriff.
“You want a bloodbath, it’s going to be on your hands…I’m either going to be laying down here on the ground with my blood on the street or I’m going to see the sheriff,” he said.
But the footage also reveals details that government officials initially left out of official reports on Finicum’s death.
When he drives away around the 4:30 mark, it appears that Finicum and his passengers would indeed make it to their destination before they abruptly approach the roadblock where agitated law enforcement agents would end his life.
The originally-released footage of the encounter makes it appear as though Finicum veered to the left to simply avoid the roadblock. But new side-by-side footage makes it appear more likely that agents fired upon Finicum and his passengers as soon as the vehicle came into sight.
Here’s the disturbing new video:
And while a prosecutor has ruled the shooting “justified,” even federal officials think something is missing from the “official” story.
As The Oregonian reported:
An FBI agent is suspected of lying about firing twice at Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and may have gotten help from four other FBI agents in covering up afterward, authorities revealed Tuesday.The bullets didn’t hit Finicum and didn’t contribute to his death, but now all five unnamed agents, part of an elite national unit, are under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is leading the independent inquiry….Investigators gave no details to explain why the one FBI agent, a member of the Hostage Rescue Team, wouldn’t report the two shots. They also didn’t indicate what his four colleagues on the team did to warrant investigation other than saying it was related to conduct after the shooting.
Mike Arnold, the attorney representing Malheaur National Wildlife Refuge occupation leader Ammon Bundy, said the information lends new credence to claims that law enforcement agents had decided to act as judge, jury and executioner long before Finicum disobeyed their orders on the snowbank.
“I’m going to have to go back and reconsider all the conspiracy theories that I’ve written off,” he told The Oregonian.
Arnold expressed concerns that the current investigation will be handled properly.
“We weren’t given the full truth at that initial FBI press conference after the shooting,” Arnold said. “They selectively released information to the public. They gave us the aerial video. They made certain representations to the public, and they were incomplete and incorrect. And this is why transparency in government is so important.”
He added: “So what we have is a bunch of folks protesting the government, then the government investigating the government protesters, and then the government accused of covering up the investigation of the government protesters, and then the government investigating their own coverup in the investigation of the government protesters.”
Arnold is calling on the government to open the case up to independent investigation.
