Thursday, March 17, 2016

Bullet casings disappear from LaVoy Finicum shooting scene, sources say

Two bullet casings that might have proven an FBI agent shot at Robert "LaVoy" Finicum apparently disappeared from the scene shortly after the Jan. 26 highway confrontation turned deadly, according to law enforcement sources and newly released police reports. Five FBI agents assigned to the traffic stop told investigators that none of them fired at Finicum's Dodge pickup after it crashed at their roadblock. Oregon investigators, however, concluded that one agent fired twice at the truck, hitting it once in the roof and missing on the second shot. A state trooper later described to investigators seeing two rifle casings in the area where the agents were posted. Detectives tasked with collecting evidence didn't find the casings, police reports indicate. FBI aerial surveillance video shows that before the detectives could get there, the FBI agents searched the area with flashlights and then huddled, according to law enforcement sources who have seen the video. The group then broke and one agent appeared to bend over twice and pick up something near where the two shots likely were taken, the sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The findings fill gaps left by authorities last week when they released the results of their investigation into Finicum's death. Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson and Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris, who supervised the investigation, said two state troopers were justified in using deadly force to stop Finicum, one of the leaders of the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. They also announced they had evidence that an FBI agent fired at Finicum's truck but didn't disclose the shots. The agent and four of his colleagues then took "specific actions" afterward, they said, but offered no other details. Nelson and Norris alerted federal officials to their findings. The FBI agents now are under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general...more

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