Here are highlights from the second week of the federal trial in Portland of FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, accused of lying about firing two shots at the truck of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.
They include testimony from the Oregon State Police officers who fatally shot Finicum and FBI agents who were next to Astarita that day.
Finicum was the spokesman for the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He died on Jan. 26, 2016, when the FBI and state police arrested two carloads of occupation leaders as they drove away from the refuge on U.S. 395 to go to a community meeting in the next county.
Investigators said they can account for six of eight shots at Finicum. Three bullets hit his truck as he sped toward a roadblock on the highway. Another three shots killed Finicum when he walked away from his truck at the roadblock and reached inside his jacket where detectives said they later found a loaded pistol. All of the bullets were fired by two state police SWAT officers, investigators said.
The investigators – members of a multi-agency task force led by Deschutes County sheriff’s detectives to review what happened -- believe someone fired two other shots in between the others. One bullet hit the roof of Finicum’s truck the moment he got out with his hands up after swerving his truck into a snowbank at the roadblock. Another missed. Prosecutors say Astarita fired the two shots. He has denied it.
So far, only prosecutors have called witnesses. The defense case is expected to start this week.
Testimony at Astarita’s trial revealed:..
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