A law enforcement official told CNN that the militia leader killed Tuesday night in Oregon defied police orders to surrender and was reaching toward his waistband, where he had a gun, when a SWAT team fatally shot him.
According to the anonymously sourced report, LaVoy Finicum allegedly attempted to speed away from authorities after his van and another vehicle carrying a group of militia members were stopped by police on a rural stretch of highway. The official told CNN that Finicum was thwarted by a roadblock set up a mile down the road, and exited his vehicle after driving it into a snow bank.
According to the account provided to CNN, Finicum allegedly then ignored FBI and state police orders to surrender, instead reaching toward his waistband, where he had a gun. The SWAT team opened fire in response, killing him and injuring fellow militia leader Ryan Bundy.
The exact circumstances of Finicum’s death have been hotly contested since news of the highway standoff with law enforcement first broke. Two individuals who claimed to be on the scene gave starkly different accounts of the chain of events, with one man, Mark McConnell, claiming that Finicum “charged” at law enforcement, and a woman traveling with the group, Victoria Sharp, insisting that officers fired on him repeatedly after he had surrendered.
Supporters of the group occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge took to social media to memorialize the deceased rancher almost immediately after his death, painting him as a martyr to the anti-government cause.
CNN reported that the shooting was caught on camera by the SWAT team and that law enforcement is considering releasing the video to refute claims that Finicum was killed while turning himself in.
