BOISE, Idaho — Ammon Bundy, a far-right activist who left Idaho in 2023 after a contentious court case ordering him to pay millions to St. Luke’s Health System, has taken issue with the FBI’s decision to award agents who were involved in the shooting death of a man who occupied an eastern Oregon wildlife refuge alongside Bundy in 2016.

In a statement to the media, Bundy’s family contended that the narrative shared in an apparent FBI document included mostly false information about the fatal shooting of Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum by Oregon State Police on Jan. 26, 2016.

Here’s what we know about what happened that day.

Bundys’ account of Finicum shooting aligns with reports

The Bundy family’s statement included a photo of FBI Director Kash Patel standing with four men with an FBI Shield of Bravery award displayed in front of them. Those men included FBI agents Joseph Astarita and John Neidert. The photo was published in the Oregonian, which said a source shared it from an internal FBI document. The image includes a caption attributed to the FBI, describing the agency’s version of the shooting and its justification for honoring the agents.

The caption states that the FBI’s hostage team responded to the militia group’s armed takeover by staging a traffic stop to arrest the group’s leader and key members outside the refuge, where the members planned to meet “clandestinely.”

The caption continued to say that the militia leader trapped Neidert under the leader’s vehicle, and that other FBI agents freed Neidert as “the leader attempted to fire at Oregon State Police officers and was fatally shot.”

The Bundys’ rebuttal more closely matches news reporting and a Department of Justice investigation of the shooting.

The Bundys’ statement said Finicum did not ram a law enforcement vehicle, pin a special agent or attempt to shoot Oregon State Police. Aerial FBI footage of the incident and a Department of Justice investigation concluded that Finicum’s truck swerved into a snowbank and did not hit law enforcement vehicles that were blocking the road.

According to reporting from the Oregonian, Neidert was thrown from a ladder he was using to see over one of the FBI’s trucks and ended up in the snow near one of the rear tires of Finicum’s truck. Reports didn’t show that he was hit by or pinned under the vehicle.

The final claim has been the most contentious piece of Finicum’s death — whether he intended to harm law enforcement. Officers said — and video showed — the rancher moved his hands into his jacket after exiting his truck immediately following the crash. Oregon State Police officers said they shot at Finicum when he refused to comply with orders to get on the ground, according to the DOJ investigation.

Investigators later found a loaded handgun in the left interior pocket of his jacket, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. He was reportedly known to law enforcement to wear a shoulder holster on the left side of his body.

“The OSP admitted shooting him three times when he lowered his arms, but there is absolutely no evidence he aimed or fired a weapon at officers,” the Bundy family statement said, and reports appear to align with that.

Officials said they believed Finicum could have planned to draw a weapon.

How Ammon Bundy’s standoff began

The Bundys, Finicum and numerous others started their occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, on Jan. 2, 2016, following a demonstration in support of local ranchers who were convicted of arson for setting fires on federally managed land.

The occupiers tore down fences, carved new roads on the reserve and posted armed guards during their 41-day occupation, former Idaho Statesman reporter Rocky Barker wrote at the time. Bundy at the time told reporters the activists were there to “re-establish the Constitution,” and some of those involved, including the Bundys, had histories of advocating against federal management of public land.

Three weeks into the occupation, the Bundys and Finicum headed to John Day, Oregon, to meet with Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. The Bundy family’s statement noted this and said their destination was not clandestine, as the FBI document alleged.

The Bundys and several others in the vehicles were arrested and charged with multiple federal crimes, including conspiracy to impede federal officers. Ultimately, the Bundys and five others were acquitted of all charges after jurors said prosecutors failed to prove their intent.

More than a dozen others involved in the standoff were convicted or pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Bundy statement raises question of rogue FBI round

Ammon Bundy’s brother, Ryan Bundy, was also injured in the incident. The Bundy family statement said Ryan Bundy, who was in Finicum’s truck during the shooting, plans to undergo surgery to remove what they’re claiming is a bullet that has remained in his arm since the incident.

The statement said the government “has never accounted for this round.”

Indeed, there has been confusion over how many shots were fired when Finicum was killed and who fired them. Two Oregon State Police officers fired six shots, three of which hit Finicum. The agency’s ballistics investigators also found a bullet strike inside Finicum’s truck that could not be attributed to the officers, according to the DOJ investigation.

After the shooting, investigators were unable to find ammunition casings or attribute the source of two additional gunshots that could be heard in videos from the scene.

FBI agents initially denied firing shots or picking up casings at the scene, despite video that showed agents with flashlights searching areas where casings had been seen. The Office of the Inspector General launched a criminal investigation and determined the shots had been fired from where two FBI agents and an Oregon State Police officer had been standing.

Astarita, whom Patel awarded the Shield of Bravery, was one of those agents. He maintained that he hadn’t fired his weapon, and was tried and acquitted of charges that involved making false statements and obstruction of justice in 2018. Officials still have not attributed the shots to a source.

Prosecutors in Astarita’s case had asked to have the object in Ryan Bundy’s shoulder — which they said could be a bullet fragment, a piece of Finicum’s truck or something else — removed and analyzed as evidence during the agent’s case, according to reporting from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The Bundy family said information about the object removed from Ryan Bundy’s arm could raise more questions in the incident. They demanded the agency and Oregon State Police comply with ballistics comparisons when the object is removed to determine its source.

“That bullet may prove not only that the FBI agent fired shots that they did not admit — but that one of those hidden rounds struck Ryan himself,” the statement said.

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