Statement released by the Finicum family

This is a statement released by the Finicum family about the details that they have gathered about the murder of their patriarch, LaVoy Finicum.
The statement sums up everything that I have said and what I have been thinking about. I will post their statement that I believe to be their statement, and then I will post the eye-witness testimonies.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B__um65-yUXEREdGS1llOGFfSGs/view

Detailed Version

SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENT FROM THE LAVOY FINICUM FAMILY 2-2-2016

The purpose of this statement is to supplement the statement we issued earlier. It does

not contradict our previous statement, but only serves to supplement, support and add

detail to our previous position.

At this point, based on the additional information we have now received, it is our

position that not only was the shooting death of LaVoy Finicum completely unjustified,

but that the FBI and Oregon State Police may also be engaging in a cover-up, and

seeking to manipulate and mislead the media and the American public about what really

happened.

We realize this may sound like a bold statement, but now that Shawna Cox, who was a

passenger in LaVoy’s vehicle, and an eye witness, has been released from custody, we

have now had the opportunity to hear yet another account, and the ability to start cross-
referencing all currently available information to figure out what really happened. This

has shed important additional light on the whole ordeal — especially when Cox is given

the opportunity to essentially narrate what is happening in the video, from an eye

witness standpoint.

It is our position that under the guise of claimed transparency, the FBI was very quick to

release a very grainy, edited video, along with their interpretation of what they claimed it

showed, without any audio overlay, in an effort to attempt to try to make the first

impression on this issue, and seek to sway public opinion from the outset.

Based on Shawna Cox’s account, coupled with the account of Victoria Sharp, and

comparison to the video released by the FBI, we now desire to make the following

additional observations:

• Mark McConnell (if that is even his real name), had previously issued a

statement that LaVoy had supposedly “charged” toward the officers. According

to Shawna Cox, however, McConnell was not even present and had no personal

knowledge whatsoever of what happened at the roadblock where LaVoy was

killed. By way of background, McConnell had shown up at the refuge just two

days earlier and ingratiated himself into their circle. He insisted on driving

Ammon Bundy to the meeting. His vehicle was stopped at the outset,

immediately surrounded by other vehicles and officers, and Ammon was arrested

at that point, without incident. According to Shawna Cox, McConnell was never

arrested and hasn’t been charged. Consequently, at this point it seems fairly

obvious that McConnell was either an undercover agent who was helping to

orchestrate the whole thing, or he was bribed somehow. But he never even saw

what happened with LaVoy.

• Officers started shooting at LaVoy’s vehicle and the people in it right from the

outset, even at the very first stop. Ryan Payne put his empty hands out of

LaVoy’s truck window, and they shot at him. Ryan then yelled that there were

women in the vehicle. The officers instructed them to allow the women to get out

of the vehicle, but Victoria Sharp refused, and Shawna Cox would not leave her.

• LaVoy clearly stated (yelled) to the officers, repeatedly, that it was his intention to

go on to Grant County to talk to the sheriff there. But a disagreement ensued

between LaVoy and Ryan Payne as to what they should do, so Payne exited the

vehicle, at which time LaVoy proceeded farther until he came to the roadblock.

• According to Shawna Cox, they were being fired upon right from the outset at the

second stop, before LaVoy even exited the vehicle. Bullets had already come

through the front windshield. According to Cox, there is no question that LaVoy

was trying to draw the gunfire away from the others in the vehicle.

• According to Cox, because it was very obvious that LaVoy had his hands in the

air and intended to keep them there, the best explanation for LaVoy’s arguably

furtive hand movements, and why he lowered his hands and reached for his side

at one point is because he had already been shot, and he was reaching toward

the area where he had been hit as an involuntary physical reflex, despite his

fairly obvious determination to try to keep his hands in the air, as evidenced by

the fact that he once again attempted to raised his hands, before being shot

again and collapsing.

• According to Shawna Cox, after LaVoy was lying motionless in the snow, the

legion of federal agents and police unleashed a barrage of gunfire on LaVoy’s

truck and its remaining occupants, then including Ryan Bundy, Shawna Cox and

Victoria Sharp, and shot it repeatedly. It was during this round of gunfire that

Ryan Bundy was wounded. According to Cox, it was miraculous that no one else

(which included Victoria Sharpe, a completely innocent bystander) was killed or

seriously wounded during this attack. In addition to gunfire, they were also

terrorized by repeated smoke and pepper bombs.

• There was never any attempt to provide any meaningful or timely medical

attention to LaVoy. Victoria Sharp kept yelling that she was an EMT, and she

wanted to treat him, but she was shot at instead.

• After re-reviewing the extended video with better technology, we want to reiterate

that we are not accepting at face value the FBI’s statement that LaVoy was

actually armed.

In summary and conclusion, after now having had the opportunity to view the full video

with better technology, and to cross-reference it with two eye-witness accounts, what

we believe the video shows is that LaVoy was being fired upon before he even got out

of the truck. He exited very quickly and ran away from the vehicle to draw the gunfire

away from the truck and its remaining occupants. He had his empty hands in the air.

He never wielded a weapon. He never posed any genuine threat to anyone. It is our

position that he was cornered like a helpless animal, with nowhere else to turn, and

executed in cold blood. We believe he had already been shot before he ever lowered

his hands. We believe some of his hand movements were a natural physical reflex to

being shot. He was shot multiple times in the back with his hands in the air. He was

then completely ignored and disregarded for an extended period of time, and left to die

with no attempt to provide any medical attention, while an entire of officers and agents

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(estimated to be at least 20 at that location), thoroughly terrorized the remaining

occupants of the vehicle, including two women (Shawna Cox and Victoria Sharp), by

shooting the truck full of holes.

Based on the FBI’s own preemptive efforts to manipulate public opinion under the guise

of transparency, it is our position that if the FBI has nothing to hide and it wants to be

fully transparent about what happened, it should immediately release the following:

• All applicable audio recordings and sound tracks, including an audio track of the

event recorded on Shawna Cox’s phone, which has not been released.

• Full length, unedited video (by drones, body cameras, dash cameras, etc.)

• Complete, close-up images of LaVoy’s truck following the siege.

In the meantime, we will have no choice but to wait for the outcome of the independent

investigation, and hope that nothing is done to tamper with the evidence.