BURNS -- Just past the Joaquin Miller campground on a juniper-lined mountain pass, a wooden cross has appeared in bloodstained snow.
Drivers on U.S. 395, the highway that connects Burns to John Day, occasionally stopped Friday to get a better look or snap pictures of the spot where Robert "LaVoy" Finicum died three days earlier. Broken glass littered the ground near a snowbank rutted from the impact of a pickup truck's front bumper.
Made of 2-by-4 boards and standing more than 5 feet tall, the cross stands along a lonely stretch of road where the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge took a dramatic and deadly turn.
FBI officials said Oregon State Police troopers shot Finicum after he led them on a short high-speed chase, rammed into the snowbank, then left the truck he was driving and reached across his body at least twice.
Greg Bretzing, an FBI special agent in charge of Oregon, said Finicum was reaching toward a jacket pocket that contained a loaded 9 mm handgun.
But speculation has raged in Burns over whether there's more to the story. Some don't believe the FBI account. Others believe it, but still mourn Finicum's death.
A key leader of the occupation, Finicum had spoken directly with many Harney County residents, imploring them to join the occupiers' fight to gain local control of federal lands.
Some held a vigil Wednesday night for Finicum and an impromptu demonstration Friday afternoon to protest his death and urge the release of two local ranchers from federal prison. Further from home, a Northwest militia group has called upon its members to descend on Burns to demand repercussions for the officer or officers who shot Finicum.
"I'm against the blatant murder of LaVoy," protester Tom Davis, 57, of Riley, responded when asked why he joined the group gathered Friday afternoon outside the Harney County Courthouse.
As community tension remains high, four occupiers are still holding ground at the refuge. They say they won't leave unless federal authorities grant pardons for everyone involved in the standoff.
( Source )