FBI agents under investigation for possible misconduct in LaVoy Finicum shooting

An FBI agent is suspected of lying about firing twice at Robert "LaVoy" Finicium and may have gotten help from four other FBI agents in covering up afterward, authorities revealed Tuesday.

The bullets didn't hit Finicum and didn't contribute to his death, but now all five unnamed agents, part of an elite national unit, are under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Inspector General Michael Horowitz is leading the independent inquiry.

The remarkable disclosure came as a team of local investigators released findings that two state troopers shot Finicium three times in the back during the chaotic scene at a police roadblock Jan. 26. One bullet pierced his heart, an autopsy showed.

FBI agents under investigation for possible misconduct in LaVoy Finicum shooting

We have some reports coming out that at least 5 FBI agents involved in the LaVoy Finicum shooting in Oregon are under investigation from the Justice Department and an Inspector General.

The "investigation(s)" are reportedly criminal.

This turns the whole thing from start to finish into a massive tailspin all of a sudden.

While a local? prosecutor ruled the fatal shooting was legally justified, this puts all the official reports, the speculation, and the now famous FBI released video of the shooting.

Seems nobody actually knows for sure what happened.

Lots of speculation about who was or wasn't an FBI informant or infiltrator has been talked about too.

WoW !!

a reply to: xuenchen

Color me surprised.

This sort of mentality is cognitive cancer, I mentioned this scenario over in SO's thread on Scalia's death, nearly a month ago.

I knew this whole thing stunk the moment I saw the video and added the together what could be gleaned through the smokescreen.

We better buckle up, because I think some serious flying fecal matter might intersect coordinates with the oscillator in the near to mid future.

jadedANDcynical beat me to it... but I'm saying it anyway: Color me shocked!

Now to go read the article....

a reply to: xuenchen

Holy smokes!

But investigators found that Oregon State Police and the FBI planned for days how to arrest the occupation leaders peacefully.

Investigators said they intend to release police reports, interview transcripts, photographs, the autopsy report and new video to allow the public to evaluate the police findings in Finicum's death. They didn't release the names of the involved troopers and FBI agents.

...

What happened in just seconds after that crash could lead to criminal charges against the FBI agents.

Cox's video showed that one shot hit the truck's left rear passenger window as Finicum stepped out. At the time, Finicum appeared to have his hands at least at shoulder height.

Shot at as soon as he exited the truck!

Investigators later established that the bullet entered the truck through the roof before shattering the window and concluded it was fired by an FBI agent. Another bullet from the same FBI agent apparently went wild and missed the truck altogether, the investigation showed.

Finicum then moved toward the back of his truck and out of view of Cox's phone, but she was still able to record what was said outside the truck.

Officers repeatedly ordered Finicum to get on the ground, according to the video. The investigation found that Finicum first faced a state trooper taking cover in nearby trees, then turned toward two troopers advancing from the highway.

Those two state troopers fired when Finicum turned back toward the trooper in the trees while reaching for a loaded 9 mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol inside his jacket, investigators said.

Finicum was struck from behind in the left shoulder, the left upper back and the right lower back, a state autopsy found. He died at the scene.

source is OP article



Yes, he was going for his weapon when the staties shot him, I do understand that.

The feds had already shot at him, though, while he was exiting the vehicle with his hands up which is not good, I think.

Yeah it is surprising.

Since the last 8 years the DOJ main function has been covering up criminal wrong doing.

originally posted by: neo96
Yeah it is surprising.

Since the last 8 years the DOJ main function has been covering up criminal wrong doing.

Makes you wonder if they aren't trying to stir people up.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: neo96
Yeah it is surprising.

Since the last 8 years the DOJ main function has been covering up criminal wrong doing.

Makes you wonder if they aren't trying to stir people up.

Makes me smell a scapegoat.

Pretty much like what they did to Reno for Waco.

I'll be impressed when indictments are handed out.

a reply to: xuenchen

andhas nothing to do with the outcome of the investigation.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: neo96
Yeah it is surprising.

Since the last 8 years the DOJ main function has been covering up criminal wrong doing.

Makes you wonder if they aren't trying to stir people up.

Or maybe it was a message... you know, publicly releasing him cope a shot to the head.

... its as if there saying, this is what happens when make us look weak!

FBI agents under investigation for possible misconduct in LaVoy Finicum shooting

Where are the chants 'white lives matter'

Hashtag #Whitelivesmatter

Justice for Lavoy!

a reply to: xuenchen
a reply to: jadedANDcynical

From the source article:

One of those two troopers moments earlier had fired at Finicum's truck as it barreled toward the police roadblock. That trooper hit the truck with three rounds, investigators concluded.

Payne, the tactical leader of the occupation, surrendered after a state trooper fired a plastic tipped 40mm pepper spray round that struck the truck's canopy.

Admissions that Finicum and/or his vehicle was fired upon BEFORE he exited the vehicle. Finicum is now in fear for his life, and the lives of everyone else in the vehicle.

Investigators later established that the bullet entered the truck through the roof before shattering the window and concluded it was fired by an FBI agent.

Through the roof? The sniper(s) in the trees that Shawna Cox and/or Victoria Sharp told us about.

Finicum kept moving his hands toward a pocket that contained a loaded handgun. Although he was shot from behind, Finicum had a trooper in front of him armed with a Taser who was thought to be in danger.

What weasel words!!! Note they do not specify if that officer used the taser! He could have also been moving his hands toward the spot where he was tased by the trooper, and if they know that Finicum was in fact tased, then they also know Finicum would have instinctively reached for that wound.

A prosecutor ruled the fatal shooting was legally justified, saying state law allows use of deadly force when officers believe a person is about to seriously injure or kill someone.

However, the state's respective appeals court has also ruled that under the provocation-of-conflict doctrine:

If an officer intentionally or recklessly violates a suspect's constitutional rights, then the violation may be a provocation creating a situation in which force was necessary and such force would have been legal but for the initial violation.

As I said on another thread, someone thought long and hard to set this ambush up in such a way that every officer would be in potential danger and therefore in fear for their lives in order to "fulfill" the criteria established for the justifiable use of lethal force.

a reply to: neo96

Interesting.

Unarmed black people die at the hands of police and they're labeled a thug who deserved it.

Here we have a video of a armed white man taunting police, runs from them, then swerves to avoid the next barricade, gets out of his car yelling for them to shoot him and reaches for his loaded weapon. Meanwhile, he and his merry men illegally occupy a federal building while armed. When this man dies all the sudden there has to be outrage, why? He clearly had a death wish.

Imagine if a armed group of black people did the very same thing. Oh what a different outcome there would be!

a reply to: xuenchen

We should disband the FBI and make a new agency.

They still act like they are dealing with gangsters from the 20s. They fought fire with fire, and now burn our nation like the criminals they once fought.

New video.. from inside the truck..

New info on the investigation of the FBI Agents:

Bullet hole on LaVoy Finicum's truck traced to elite FBI team

An elaborate computer analysis, a review of the FBI aerial video of the shooting scene and a video from a passenger in Finicum's pickup produced a result that startled the team poring over evidence into Finicum's fatal shooting that day.

Nelson said "conclusive evidence" about the agents' conduct was presented to U.S. Attorney Bill Williams in Bend on Feb. 18. The next day, the evidence was shown to Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the Portland FBI office. On Feb. 20, agents from the Justice Department's inspector general and the FBI's Inspections Division traveled to Bend to review the evidence.

Nelson and Dan Norris, the Malheur County district attorney overseeing the shooting investigation, then traveled to brief top FBI officials in Washington.

Tim Colahan, Harney County district attorney who asked Norris to handle the shooting investigation, said in a prepared statement that "we will continue to work to determine how the HRT operators' actions played into the events. We reserve the right, as Oregonians, to hold wrongdoers accountable for their actions."

I hope that's true.

Interesting, to say the least, how the sites who use USA Today/ AP are sharing in contrast to Oregon Live(OP source). "Officials: Police shooting of Ore. protester was justified"
Source-NWCN

Another

I was in Bend Oregon last week.

I can tell you that there were PLENTY of federal agents just watching.

The local community is mostly retired military and the such. LOTS of contractors, black-water types. Its no wonder why this even developed in central Oregon......

They are going to be deployed there for a while, and the local FBI office will grow.

Central Oregon will never be free of these people. Especially if the FBI is shown to be criminal and complicit in killing the guy. There is too much of a real threat for more of this happening in the future. They are deployed like they are there to stay....

Beautiful town BTW. Freaking heaven.

a reply to: wildb

wow, in that video not one shot is fired until LaVoy reaches for his jacket pocket, then 3 rounds are fired.

Cheeky little prick seriously was going for his gun.

a reply to: xuenchen

The same FBI agents who ordered teachers to report to them, students who question their government? If a kid in Poly Sci can get FBI attention for doing what ALL Americans should be able to do, poor dead Finicum didn't stand a chance.

RIP Fin.