Was LaVoy Finicum Murdered? Here's the Latest (with Video)
LaVoy Finicum, center, a rancher from Arizona who is part of an armed group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal land management policies, carries his granddaughter Payton, as other family member watch following a news conference at the refuge Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, near Burns, Ore. Ammon Bundy, the leader of the group said Friday he and his followers are not ready to leave even though the sheriff and many locals say the group has overstayed their welcome. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Was LaVoy Finicum murdered? Read/watch the following then give your answer in the comments.
Here's what we know for sure: the BLM Standoff is far from over. You'll see more about the ongoing case at the bottom of the post. It is imperative we keep this situation alive so LaVoy's death and the BLM protest is not for naught.
Although we might disagree at how attention was brought to the BLM's unconstitutional land grabs, if you are awake at all -- possibly because you've experienced tyranny firsthand in your own life -- you know that, ultimately, it was going to come to this.
Now to the question:
Was LaVoy Finicum murdered by his government?
In the following video, ex-cop and veteran Think Like A Cop (TLAC) explains what happened at the roadblock, moment by moment, based on his 30 plus years of military and police experience.
Watch and read along in the notes below the video. There are a couple of critical notes/additions, still TBD officially, of course.
Beginning to minute 8:21 First traffic stop Notice that during the first traffic stop as well as during the roadblock, the officers are obviously not afraid of being shot. They are standing out in the open. TLAC says the FBI knew the SUV occupants were unarmed. They do act that way.
9:22 Roadblock Two points: 1) this roadblock was after a curve, which did not afford LaVoy ample time to see it and stop. Is this why he ran off the road? And 2) roadblocks are acknowledged to be deadly force, inherently dangerous and life-threatening. Most U.S. jurisdictions don't use them for this reason.
11:14 LaVoy gets out of SUV with hands up, arms out
14:40 Cop on the right breaks cover and runs behind the SUV -- out in the open behind a vehicle he supposedly believes is full of armed and dangerous people -- and SHOOTS LAVOY, a man who had exited his vehicle with his hands up.
Now: we don't know when LaVoy was first shot: before his hands drop to his left hip or after.
If before, then it would appear that he's either reaching for a gun being worn on his left hip OR he's lifting his coat to show that he is unarmed, as TLAC suggests.
If after, he's reaching for the wound. Or, if armed, reaching for a gun to shoot back.
CRITICAL NOTE: While LaVoy is right-handed and wore a gun on his right hip (picture from Boise State Public Radio), he also wore a shoulder holster with a gun on his left hip. That is, when he was carrying. Was he that day?
Here's a question for you gun-owners out there: would a calm, sensible, life-long gun-owning family man reach for a gun in the face of all that uniformed deadly force?
22:45 LaVoy is shot by the cop on the left. CRITICAL NOTE: it is now believed that LaVoy was shot with a taser by this cop, after which LaVoy immediately goes down, which is consistent with being tasered. Also, this would explain why an officer would "shoot" toward fellow officers. Watch the video:
When was LaVoy shot 9 times?
When LaVoy's family got his body, they discovered he was shot (with bullets) a total of 9 times, once in the face. CRITICAL NOTE: Unless he was shot several more times during the few seconds he was standing with no physical response seen on the video, then he was shot the other 8 times after he was down.
Now, he COULD have taken 9 shots to the body in rapid succession and we might not have seen 9 "reactions" on this quality video... but surely we would have noticed a face shot?
TLAC's observations & questions
The suspects were NOT violent & had not hurt anyone
Gov knew who the suspects were so escape was not a concern
Cops had much greater force, numbers & daylight
Cops picked the place, when and how this went down
Cops used deadly force option by blocking the road before stop
Cops show no regard for their fear when they ran down a man with his hands up
Suspect was UNARMED
Suspect did NOT point anything at officers
Suspect had his Hands up and spinning as if to show unarmed
Why were no spike strips used? [FBI now says they were deployed, the Oathkeepers' talk below discusses this in detail.]
Why chase them when they had several opportunities to arrest?
What was the Emergency or exigency to get them NOW?
Suspects were in 3 to 4 feet of snow, no threat of escape
[Edited a bit for clarity and brevity] It always comes back to reasonable and TOTALITY OF CIRCUMSTANCES. This was not a traffic stop in the middle of the night in a dark alley in a high crime area, where the officers have no idea of who they are stopping or what their intentions are or where one officer is stopping a car with four people in it.
To the contrary, it was multiple officers, heavily armed, who could have picked any time or anywhere to arrest these guys. It was daylight, the Gov had way superior force, they blocked the road endangering their lives and the lives of others, the suspects were known, identified and had been contacted by the feds several times before this chosen encounter, there were no other people around, they had air support, radio contact, heavy snow with nowhere to run.
If a suspect got away, he could not get far, they could follow with a drone, they knew his identity. The suspects DID NOT DO ANY VIOLENT CRIME OR ACTS, other than trespassing and failing to stop when pulled over [a misdemeanor]. The cops used poor tactics which set the car up to either ram them so they could then shoot the suspects. When the suspects tried to avoid the cops and not run them over, some dumbass jumped in front of the car so he could say, "they tried to run me over."
An unarmed suspect, NO GUN WAS SEEN OR POINTED AT ANYONE, got out of the car and ran and the cops had adequate cover from their vehicles and bullet proof vests so they were in NO IMMEDIATE DANGER, until they ran out from cover to shoot an unarmed guy who they knew who he was and he had nowhere to go.
"TOTALITY OF CIRCUMSTANCES" - WHO CREATED THE EXIGENCY? WERE THE COPS IN FEAR HIDING BEHIND THEIR CARS? IF SO, WHY DID THEY LEAVE THEIR CARS, SUSPECT COULD NOT ESCAPE, THEY HAD AIR SUPPORT, THEY HAD DAYLIGHT, THEY PICKED THE AREA THAT WAS SAFE, THERE WAS NO ENDANGERMENT OF BYSTANDERS...
If you are going to pick and choose which facts fix your agenda, then this is not being objective.</end TLAC's comments>
From Oathkeepers
Stewart Rhodes and Oath Keeper SWAT Officer Greg McWhirter discuss the LaVoy Finicum shooting in detail. This is a long interview, but very very thorough and covers the entire incident. If you are interested in knowing what really happened, what were the LEO's options, why did they proceed in the manner they did, this is a must-listen: https://www.oathkeepers.org/9870-2/
The BLM Protest is far from over
Here are Ammon's attorneys explaining the situation and how events will unfold:
Here is Lissa with a message from Ammon:
Please donate what you can to Ammon's defense fund here: bit.ly/ammonbundy
RESOURCES
Federal Arrest Probable Cause Affidavit for the peaceful occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Hamey County, Oregon.
Complete FBI video (same as TLAC's without commentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAGxDWKrjPQ
Support of Pretrial Detention of Bundy Group: http://www.thinklikeahorse.org/images3/bundy%20detention.pdf
Case Law On Police Pursuits and Deadly Force: http://www.thinklikeahorse.org/images3/police%20pursuits.pdf
Links to videos in article:
Think Like A Cop's video and explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvJwWKU-3GU
Video asking if LaVoy was tasered by 2nd cop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qup47XJGIl4
Ammon's attorneys talk about the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ErP5d4nuao
Message from Ammon Bundy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Ll1h1wp00