WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Militia members who have occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for the past 26 days in the US state of Oregon are urged to abandon their armed protest and are told they will be allowed to leave the site, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing said on Wednesday.
"The armed occupiers have been given ample opportunities to leave the refuge peacefully," Bretzing stated during a news conference. "As outsiders to Oregon, they have been given the opportunity to return to their families and work through the normal legal process to air their grievances."
Bretzing charged that instead "these individuals have chosen to threaten and intimidate the America they profess to love and through criminal actions bring these consequences upon themselves."
Finicum’s daughter Thara Lynn Tenney posted a message on Facebook with a YouTube account by a person who rode together with her father prior to being killed. She claimed police murdered Finicum execution-style as he held his hands in the air during the arrest, and then shot him three times while he lay on the ground.
Bretzing said people who want to leave the refuge are free to do so, but he did not say whether they would be subject to arrest at checkpoints established by the FBI to block access to the occupation site.
An FBI press release issued earlier states that anyone coming out of the refuge must have his or her identification confirmed by the authorities and any associated vehicles searched.
