FBI agent charged with lying about his role in Oregon standoff activist's killing

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

An FBI special agent lied about his involvement in the fatal shooting of a protester who helped lead an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, according to a federal indictment on obstruction of justice charges.

A grand jury in Portland has charged W Joseph Astarita with three counts of making false statements, alleging that he lied when he claimed he did not fire his weapon during the attempted arrest of LaVoy Finicum, a key figure in the Oregon militia standoff at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016.

The charges, revealed in federal court records on Wednesday, raise fresh questions about the death of Finicum and the FBI’s response to the high-profile protest in rural eastern Oregon, which was led by ranchers and rightwing activists, who seized federal property to protest government land regulations.

Astarita, who pleaded not guilty in federal court in Portland, was assigned to arrest the leaders of the standoff on 26 January 2016 when Finicum drove off the road and into a snowbank, before attempting to flee on foot. During the ensuing confrontation, some of which was captured on film, Oregon state police officers shot and killed Finicum, an Arizona rancher, who police say was reaching for his gun. Police later said the shooting was “justified”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/28/lavoy-finicum-oregon-standoff-fbi-agent-charged-lying

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Sam Levin in San Francisco
Wednesday 28 June 2017 23.52 BST

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Talk about a Cluster---k.

More ammo for the Gun Humpers and fake militia groups.

[enough]

2. Amen. NT

[RegexReader]

3. that it is but

it is disturbing that the FBI was caught lying about shooting someone that was coming in to talk about a peaceful resolution to that standoff.

Bet no one else will take that offer and it will end in a Waco style shoot out. All of which will just further the flames of hate & violence.

[renegade000]

4. There's video of the shooting from a helicopter

The guy was twitching about in circles and reaching into his jacket after stumbling out of a car that just crashed after a high-speed pursuit. I would hardly call that the optimal way to approach the authorities to peacefully surrender. Looked more like suicide by cop if anything. Still good that the lying FBI agent is being held accountable... it is utterly unacceptable from law enforcement officers.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Has to do with lieing about the spent shell casings

that were not accountable after the fact. Falsified reports.

[janx]

6. I would not call it suicide by cop. Finicum got involved and was in over his head.

He freaked out and then reached for his gun when he got out of the SUV.

FBI and Oregon state police were involved. But I agree with you that if an FBI agent was caught lying, s/he should be accountable.

[snooper2]

9. Blue Tarp Douchebag was yelling shoot me shoot me and reached in his coat

I just wonder what ever happened to the blue tarp? Did his widow get it?

[canetoad]

7. It's unclear who

Exactly, shot Finicum. I guess he was the one who said he "held back".

From Wikipedia:

"Two troopers fired a total of three times, and a third who was about to fire held back, realizing a fourth shot was not needed.[23][24][37] Medical assistance was given to Finicum approximately 10 minutes after the shooting.[38]"

[SkyDaddy7]

8. What really pisses me off...

Is you NEVER see this type of attention to detail on police reports when it comes to cops shooting African Americans!! Cops LIE LIE LIE on police reports all the time! Even the so-called good cops will cover for the bad cop on police reports! And when they're caught little to nothing is done to punish them! A good example is the incident when the SC cop shot the man running away from him & several cops documented on their reports when they arrived that the cop was administering first aid but when the video came out we know that never happened!! None of those cops were ever charged with falsify their reports! I worked for a criminal defense attorney & we saw this all the time! Trying to judges & DAs to punish cops is difficult as well because they need them for the next election. Especially if it involves a minority it simply will never happen!