FBI agents under investigation in LaVoy Finicum shooting death

Five FBI agents of an elite national unit are under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department after one agent allegedly lied about shooting twice at the former spokesperson for the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, LaVoy Finicum.

The findings come on the heels of an investigation into the actions taken by Oregon State Police troopers. Federal, state and Deschutes County investigators released video, audio and other findings Tuesday in the investigation into the Jan. 26 fatal shooting of Finicum by two Oregon State Police troopers, saying the sequence of events made clear it was a justified use of deadly force.

Minutes before the fatal encounter, other troopers had fired three shots that hit Finicum’s pickup truck as it approached a roadblock Jan. 26 north of Burns.

Then, they said, after the pickup crashed into a snowbank and Finicum got out, refusing to follow repeated commands to get on the ground, two troopers fired three shots that struck and killed Finicum as he repeatedly reached for a loaded 9 mm handgun in his coat pocket, investigators said Tuesday.

Officials from several agencies released their evidence, including video and audio taken by Shawna Cox, a passenger in the pickup.

Authorities held a nearly hour-long news conference to go over their findings in the investigation into the fatal shooting along U.S. Highway 395 as leaders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and a few other participants headed for a planned community meeting in John Day.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said after reviewing the results of the independent investigation by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, it was clear the two OSP troopers who fired three shots that struck Finicum from the back, in the upper shoulder and torso, were justified in their use of deadly physical force to prevent imminent harm to law enforcement officers.

A third trooper was trying to get close enough to Finicum at the time to deploy a Taser and end the incident without bloodshed, officials said.

But they also revealed that late in the investigation, in mid-February, it was learned that two FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) participants had fired two shots at the truck after it stopped as he was exiting the truck, according to Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson – one that struck the roof of the advancing pickup and another that apparently missed. Investigators had been unable earlier to determine who had fired the shot that hit the roof.

The inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation into the failure to disclose those gunshots immediately after the incident, said FBI Oregon Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing and U.S. Attorney for Oregon Bill Williams.

A total of eight shots were fired, said officials, who synced the earlier-released FBI aerial video with that shot by Shawna Cox from within the pickup.

“Get on the ground!” officers can be heard shouting at Finicum, who crashed his pickup into a 5-foot-tall snowbank – narrowly missing an HRT member – then jumped out of his truck.

“Go ahead and shoot me!” Finicum can be heard saying. “You’ll have to shoot me!”

Nelson said Finicum failed to comply with repeated commands to get on the ground, and twice “reaches across his body with the right hand, into the jacket area where the gun was found.”

In both cases, he said, “OSP does not shoot.”

After raising his hands again, Finicum is ordered a third time to get on the ground.

“Mr. Finicum grabs his jacket with his left hand, and reaches his right hand into the area where the gun is found,” she sheriff said. “At this time, the two OSP troopers behind Mr. Finicum – only one you can see in the video – shoot a total of three shots, killing Mr. Finicum.”

“Both said they shot Mr. Finicum because they believed he was reaching for a handgun and was about to use deadly force against them or the officer with a Taser,” Nelson said.

Shawna Cox’s video from inside the truck also captured what Finicum said at the initial traffic stop, about 1 miles away from where the shooting occurred.

“Just shoot me!” he said. “You do as you damn well please. I’m going to meet the (Grant County) sheriff.”

“You can go ahead and shoot me – put the laser (spot) right there, a bullet through the head.”

Bretzing said that “no one, from the director of the FBI down to each and every employee who was working in Harney County, wanted this situation to end in violence or death.”

“However, Mr. Finicum chose to break the law, put other people’s lives in danger, and, as the investigation shows, provoke a confrontation with law enforcement.”

“As the sheriff and DA have shown, the threat Mr. Finicum posed to OSP troopers and agents along Highway 395 on that day was real and imminent, and certainly justified the use of deadly force by law enforcement,” Bretzing said.

Here’s a link to a page with all the sheriff’s office videos and documents released late Tuesday.