(From top left) Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Ryan Waylen Payne, Brian Cavalier, Peter Santilli, Joseph Donald OShaughnessy , and Shawna Cox.
Handout / Getty Images
Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed group arrested Tuesday after a tense standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge called on his remaining supporters at the facility to stand down and go home.
"To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here," Bundy said in a statement read by his attorney Wednesday. "Please stand down. Go home and hug your families. This fight is ours for now in the courts. Please go home."
Bundy, six other men and a woman were arrested Tuesday in connection to the tense, nearly month-long standoff between law enforcement and militia members at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
"We will have more to say later but right now I am asking the federal government to allow the people at the refuge to go home without being prosecuted," Bundy said.
All seven militants arrested in Oregon were ordered to remain in custody Wednesday after a federal judge determined them to be a flight risk. Federal prosecutors in court said they were concerned the defendants would return to the refuge and make one last stand.
The judge decided all would be held at least until Friday, when their next court hearing is scheduled.
Ammon and his brother, Ryan Bundy, were stopped on their way to a community meeting in John Day, a town about 100 miles north from the refuge.
Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox and Ryan Waylen Payne were also arrested during the stop, which erupted in gun fire and ended with the death of one of their supporters.
Ammon Bundy.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Family members and supporters of the armed group have identified the deceased as Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, an Arizona rancher and a supporter of the Bundy family who acted as a sort of spokesman for the group.
Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy and Pete Santilli were also arrested by law enforcement near the area.
John Ritzheimer was arrested in Arizona.
According to a 32-page indictment unsealed Wednesday, all eight are facing a felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers from discharging their duties through the use of force, intimidation or threat.
Sixteen federal employees work at the refuge, according to the indictment, and were prevented from going to work because of the standoff.
But authorities allege the incidents also impacted the surrounding community.
The Bureau of Land Management, for example, decided to shut down its offices in Hines because of the stand off.
In one incident described in the affidavit, Ritzheimer and another man are accused of confronting a woman at a local Safeway who was wearing a Bureau of Land Management shirt.
Ritzheimer and the other person allegedly told her they would follow her home and burn her home down.
Prosecutors have used much of the group's own social postings against them in the affidavit, including videos posted on social media during their occupation. Ammon Bundy is quoted in a video, for example, calling for people to "bring your arms" and go to the refuge, where he was "planning on staying here for several years."
Despite Bundy's call for supporters at the refuge to stand down, a supporter continued to livestream from the refuge throughout the night and Wednesday afternoon.
In the videos, David Fry shows several people leaving the refuge, but others remained there with weapons, apparently ready for a confrontation.
FBI officials surrounded the refuge last night, and have told people there they can leave the compound through the checkpoints that have been established in the main roads.
LINK: Oregon Sheriff Says Refuge Standoff "Has Been Tearing Our Community Apart"
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1ToCvNl
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