SWAT Officers Who Shot LaVoy Finicum Speak For The First Time
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 8 months ago
The state police SWAT officer who investigators say fired five times at refuge occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum said Monday he second-guessed himself when he learned of an unaccounted-for bullet hole in the roof of Finicum’s truck.
In the days after the Jan. 26, 2016, shooting in Harney County, the officer wracked his brain trying to figure out how it could have occurred, considering that none of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team agents at the scene said they had fired any shots.
“I never thought I did it, but there were times I was thinking, ‘I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense,”’ he said. “If that was going to be attributed to me and I had no recollection of it … could I continue in this profession?”
When he learned investigators had tracked all his shots and the magazine of his AR-15 rifle was missing five bullets, he said he told them: “The FBI has a big effing problem, and this is serious.”
The testimony from “Officer 1” – the only identification of the SWAT officer used in court because of government concerns over militia threats – is crucial to the prosecution’s case in the trial of an FBI agent at the scene that day.
Agent W. Joseph Astarita is accused of lying about having fired two disputed shots at Finicum’s truck as state police and the FBI moved to arrest leaders of armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. One struck the roof and one missed entirely.
Astarita’s lawyers have argued that other people at the scene, and most likely Officer 1, could have fired the shots.
Officer 1 said he knew he hadn’t fired the shots in question because investigators found only 24 rounds remaining in the magazine of his AR-15 rifle, which he said he loaded with 29 rounds.
He had fired three times as Finicum’s truck was speeding toward a roadblock set up on U.S. 395 as the refuge leaders left the bird sanctuary. They each struck the front of the truck. He then fired two times and struck Finicum’s back after Finicum had walked away from his truck and reached into his jacket, according to investigators.
Officer 1, now a captain who has worked for the state police for 20 years, was the lieutenant and commander of the agency’s SWAT team at the time of Finicum’s shooting.
Officer 2, the second state police officer who shot Finicum that day, also testified – the first time either of them have publicly spoken about their roles in what happened. He fired once, his bullet also hitting Finicum in the back. He’s now a sergeant with the tactical team, having worked 21 years with the agency.
Their superiors worried from the outset that they would face threats, so much so that the night of the shooting they directed investigators to take photos of each officer with a paper bag concealing their faces when documenting their clothing and equipment.
Prosecutors sought to portray the state police officers who fired their rifles that day as having acted according to state police policy while the FBI agents skirted standard protocol.
The two state police officers said they immediately alerted supervisors that they had fired and surrendered their rifles and ammunition.
In contrast, prosecutors showed that FBI agents were seen on aerial video scouring the scene for items and ducking under trucks after the shooting. The FBI agents also failed to ensure a shell casing spotted on the ground was marked as evidence and then in a highly unusual move, demanded they be interviewed as a group by detectives, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers have painted a much different portrait of state police, suggesting Officer 1, who was supposed to be in a command role that day, instead ran aggressively to confront Finicum in a risky maneuver without any cover causing a potential cross-fire situation with another state trooper.
They pointed out that state police didn’t immediately create a crime scene log to control who entered or exited the area and allowed other police vehicles to pass through.
They suggested state police officers heightened the tension from the beginning by firing a less- lethal sponge bullet at Ryan Payne, the front seat passenger in Finicum’s truck, who was about to surrender when authorities first stopped the two-car caravan of refuge leaders earlier on the highway.
They also revealed that Officer 1 exchanged text messages about the shooting, witness officers’ statements and evidence with state SWAT officer Joey Pollard, who witnessed the shooting, and their boss, Travis Hampton, now state police superintendent. The exchanges came before his interview, held five days after the shooting.
[ … ]
Prosecutor Gary Sussman followed up, asking if that was because Pollard’s focus was elsewhere. Pollard said he was looking at Finicum’s hands when Finicum stepped out of the truck and heard a “loud bang.”
After the shooting, Pollard drove Officer 1 from Burns to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office in Bend. Deschutes County was tasked with leading the investigation of the shooting. After Officer 1 and Officer 2 turned in their gear and were photographed, Pollard drove each officer home.
In the days that followed, testimony Monday revealed Pollard exchanged multiple text messages with Officer 1 and instructed Officer 1 on Feb. 1 about the bullet hole that forensic investigators found in the roof of Finicum’s truck.
Good Lord. What a circle jerk.
Remember folks, this didn’t arise out of thin air. The whole thing began as a protest against the FedGov over trumped-up charges against ranchers whose land the BLM wanted because it had been promised to Uranium One in exchange for donations to The Clinton Foundation, all approved and catalyzed by The State Department.
Never forget that. These officers are under cross examination right now because they did the bidding of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their band of demons.
On August 7, 2018 at 2:38 am, DAN III said:
These badged thugs were/are nothing more than assassins working for the Clinton cabal.
This country, what is left of it, is in deep, deep dung.
I say again….there are no good cops.
On August 7, 2018 at 7:27 am, Fred said:
DanIII, I rarely take the side of the po po but I doubt that they had, or even now have any knowledge of the state dept and Uranium One deal with the Russians. It is much more likely is that were just doing their job and wanted to go home safe. This doesn’t excuse them of course, Nuremberg and all that…
We all found out later who (what) it was that we were working for.
On August 7, 2018 at 7:29 am, Fred said:
Wow, that’s a strangle sentence. Correct it to your own taste, heh.
On August 7, 2018 at 8:00 am, Bram said:
I don’t get this case – did the Agent continue lying out of habit? Go too far in trying to make it look like a legitimate shoot by the state cops?
It was a straight up execution. They lured him out, shot up his truck despite the two girls in the vehicle, then executed him when he exited the truck.
On August 7, 2018 at 8:06 am, dad29 said:
We see again that the FEEBs are corrupt liars from top to bottom….not “just a few, at the top” as is the Usual Lie from the Deep State’s MSM propaganda outlet.
On August 7, 2018 at 12:36 pm, VanArtsdalen said:
It’s interesting that the OSP’s two assassins both got promoted.
On August 7, 2018 at 1:05 pm, J said:
Promotions-Typical, keep them in the fold and under control.
On August 7, 2018 at 1:11 pm, Elmo said:
@VanArtsdalen
Five months after the deed was done, their ‘boss’ at the time, Travis Hampton, got promoted to Head Cheese at OSP:
“I was honored to be appointed Superintendent of the OSP by Oregon Governor Kate Brown, on July 1, 2016.”
Thanks from Oregon’s ‘first bisexual governor’ for a job well, no doubt.
On August 7, 2018 at 5:01 pm, DAN III said:
ALCON,
Of course hindsight is 20/20. However, one should learn by the mistakes of others.
Finicum and his crew were aware of the fedgov hostility towards him and his challenges to .gov “authority”. There should have been a second Patriot vehicle, with armed and trained shooters, to allow for a bounding overwatch movement. The overwatch vehicle would have and could have provided security. Engaging the enemy with accurate fires after the .gov scoundrels ambushed the Finicum vehicle. Mr. Finicum may be alive today if he and his people had not trusted the .gov scoundrels.
Patriots, Traditional Americans….have no doubt. The Deep State and their enforcers both badged and media, are engaging in war against Traditional Americans and our values. Act accordingly.
On August 8, 2018 at 10:00 am, Coyyote said:
So Fincum who is reaching into his jacket – no gun seen, brandished or aimed as far as I have read – is such a threat two “officers” shoot him in the back. One of them has a AR 15. One would think holding an AR 15 if you are SWAT qualified a man reaching into his jacket with his back to you would not be deemed a big enough threat to send two rounds into his back. This was not a “good shoot” especially for so called highly qualified SWAT and HRT. BTW have they run the serial number on the gun they “found” in his jacket?
As I have said before, out here on my ranch I am not afraid of the bad guys as I have many firearms and train regularly. However I am terrified of the cops that will show up if a incident occurs.
On August 8, 2018 at 9:51 pm, Tojo said:
Back shooting murdering bastards, just doing their job. Promotions for all. And people think there are good people in ‘law enforcement’? Yeah, and the French revolution was about liberty, equality and fraternity.
On August 9, 2018 at 12:22 am, MTHead said:
Go watch the gal in the trucks cell phone video. Lavoy drove into the snow bank to avoid wreaking into them. steps out of the truck with his hands up. That’s when you see one bullet go through cab top,(trucks at an angle to FBI shooter), and break the window. (attempted murder) Lavoy keeps moving away his truck.
Fast forward, the police that shot him in the back couldn’t have known if he was going for a gun,( it was planted. the pictures show if lavoy had tried for that gun would have come out upside down in his hand. right handed, planted backwards). Or a white hanky with which to surrender.
I think the DOI even mentions the king’s enforcers being protected by mock trials. Nothing new under the sun.
On August 9, 2018 at 9:48 am, MTHead said:
Its really shithouse luck that the FBI assassins didn’t hit him with that first bullet. Then it would have been right there on video, Lavoy being shot in back with his hands up in surrender. (not that it would have changed anything).
Interesting, OSP sez it was their operation, but, at FBI request / command, they turned off their bodycams.
Thing is, the whole op was so overblown and sloppy. it couldn’t have gone worse if Hillary was personally running it. Its like the Vince Foster assassination run by Kate Brown!
On August 9, 2018 at 4:13 pm, Gryphon said:
Note that (((they))) are Desperate to Hide the Identities of the thugpig Murderers. Obviously, the .gov is becoming Scared of ‘blowback’.
This will be a Key Factor and Tactic in the next (un)Civil War, Targeting the Minions (and their Houses) so that the .gov ‘leaders’ Lose their protection.
On August 11, 2018 at 10:30 am, Longbow said:
Oh wow, this is a gem,
““Officer 1” – the only identification of the SWAT officer used in court because of government concerns over militia threats…”
Really? Police want to hide their identity because they are afraid of the people? Say it ain’t so!
Then there is this lie,
“He had fired three times as Finicum’s truck was speeding toward a roadblock set up on U.S. 395 as the refuge leaders left the bird sanctuary. They each struck the front of the truck. He then fired two times and struck Finicum’s back after Finicum had walked away from his truck and reached into his jacket, according to investigators.”
” …and reached into his jacket…, according to investigators.” Yeah, look at the fucking video, you moron. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can se though this blatant lie. But, hey, the police said it, so it must be true. A cop opens his mouth and whatever turd rolls out magically becomes the law… now ain’t that right? Just ask Sheriff Joe Lombardo of Las Vegas.
And,
What are these goons doing shooting into an approaching vehicle? None had offered the police ANY violence up to that moment in the occupation. Nobody! The cops shot into the approaching vehicle because it had entered the “kill zone” and for no other reason. Another blatant lie has been exposed. This has been reported as a traffic stop. This was an ambush, plain and simple. This was a paramilitary operation, executed by a clown posse, having NO IDEA the can of worms they were opening. Public servants? SHIT!
On August 12, 2018 at 9:16 pm, Late to the party said:
Not a thing about the feds ordering the OSP to turn off their body cameras during the entire fuckup, so’s they could get away with more of their Randy Weaver bullshit. Why did they need a ‘hostage rescue team’ anyway?