Unreleased video footage reportedly shows an FBI agent bending over, possibly removing the shell casings, from the scene where LaVoy Finicum was killed.
LaVoy Finicum, left, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January.
Rick Bowmer / AP
When Oregon State Police officers shot and killed LaVoy Finicum, the defacto spokesman for the 40-day armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge, a group of elite FBI agents who were also at the scene claimed they never fired their own guns.
Newly-surfaced evidence, however, indicates the FBI not only opened fire, but that agents may have removed evidence from the scene as well, raising questions the officers were involved in a coverup.
Finicum was among the group of ranchers and militia members who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January. He was killed by Oregon State Police officers on Jan. 26 after he crashed a truck carrying 4 people into a snowbank at a police roadblock. Footage shot by passenger Shawna Cox showed the windshield shattering after the vehicle plowed into the snow, where Finicum later got out of the vehicle and was shot by officers.
In addition to state police, FBI agents from the agency's elite Hostage Rescue Team fired two gunshots at the scene, authorities revealed earlier this month, but the agents never told investigators anything about those shots. Their failure to mention the gunfire led the Department of Justice to open an investigation.
Two big pieces of evidence have since come to light, raising serious questions about the FBI's role in the shooting and why it wasn't immediately known that the agents opened fire.
The first is a pair of "copper-colored" rifle casings that one state police officer recalled seeing at the scene. The officer mentioned the casings during an interview with investigators, but they were never recovered and documented as evidence.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1R3114G
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