DENVER — Investigators said Tuesday that Oregon state officers acted properly when they shot and killed LaVoy Finicum, one of the activists occupying a wildlife refuge in Oregon, but federal officials have opened an inquiry into the actions of FBI agents for not disclosing that they also fired shots during the confrontation.
The investigators based their conclusions in part on a dramatic, previously undisclosed videotape taken from one of the occupants of Finicum's car, which showed him taunting officers and daring them repeatedly to "shoot me."
"Of particular concern to all of us," said Sheriff Shane Nelson of Deschutes County, was that the FBI agents "did not disclose their shots to investigators."
Finicum was killed Jan. 26 after authorities tried to apprehend him at a police blockade outside the refuge.
Nelson said neither of the shots by the FBI struck Finicum. Investigators said Finicum was instead shot and killed by three rounds fired by Oregon state officers, all of which struck him in the back. The Malheur County district attorney, Dan Norris, said that all six shots fired by Oregon officers, including the three that hit Finicum, were justified.
The two shots fired by federal agents — at least one of which hit Finicum's vehicle — will be the subject of the investigation, Nelson said. The inquiry will be done by the Justice Department inspector general's office along with the U.S. attorney's office in Oregon.
While the findings are a relief to the local troopers, the FBI agents on the scene face serious questions — along with new investigations into their role by both local and federal officials.
FBI agents on the scene from the hostage and rescue team were interviewed by investigators immediately after the shooting and again about 10 days later, but on both occasions they denied having fired any shots. Investigators said they ultimately concluded that two of the shots — one hitting the truck — must have come from one of the FBI agents, whose identity is still unknown to investigators.
Once investigators learned last month of the failure of the agents to disclose their full role, investigators in Washington were immediately summoned to Oregon to begin investigating possible impropriety, officials said.
Greg Bretzing, the special agent in charge of the Oregon office, declined to say Tuesday whether any of the FBI agents involved in the episode had been placed on leave.
In January, Finicum, 54, was one of the first people to occupy the refuge, an 188,000-acre bird sanctuary just outside Burns, Oregon, that is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Finicum and other leaders of the occupation, including two brothers, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, initially said they were protesting the prison sentences of two local ranchers who had been convicted of lighting fires that spread to federal land.
Others joined the activists at the refuge and the group began to call on the government to relinquish control of all federal lands. Many occupiers affiliated themselves with the so-called patriot movement, a loosely organized group that includes various militias and others who oppose the idea of a strong federal government.
On Jan. 26, Finicum, the Bundy brothers, and several other occupation leaders left the refuge in two vehicles, headed to a meeting in a nearby city, John Day, where they hoped to rally supporters. But the state police and the FBI had set up a blockade. As officers tried to arrest them, Finicum was killed. A video released by the bureau showed Finicum stopping his vehicle, then speeding away only to end up in a ditch near a roadblock. He then got out of his vehicle, waving his arms and reaching toward his pocket. The police later said that Finicum was carrying a loaded 9 mm handgun.
More than two dozen occupiers were eventually arrested and face federal conspiracy charges.
Two witnesses to the Jan. 26 episode, Shawna Cox, 59, and Victoria Sharp, 18, have said that they believe the killing of Finicum was unjust, and that he was holding his hands in the air in surrender. Sharp has said she heard shots hit the truck where she was holed up.
"I was a witness, I saw what happened," said Cox in a telephone interview shortly before the investigators' announcement. "They murdered him."
The occupation ended on Feb. 11, when the last four protesters left the bird sanctuary and turned themselves in to the FBI. But occupiers and their sympathizers have gathered since, holding rallies in Portland, Salt Lake City, Bend, Oregon, and elsewhere, protesting Finicum's death, the arrest of other occupiers, and the arrest of Cliven Bundy, a prominent leader of the anti-government movement.