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Wednesday, January 31, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Family of rancher killed
in Oregon standoff sues
ByKStevenKDubois
Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) — The
family of an Arizona rancher
who was killed by police
during the armed occupation
of a national wildlife refuge
in Oregon alleged in a U.S.
lawsuit Friday that he was
“deliberately executed by
a preplanned government
ambush.”
The wrongful-death law-
suit filed in Portland on the
second anniversary of Robert
“LaVoy” Finicum’s death
seeks at least $5 million in
damages for his widow and
each of their 12 children.
The United States is listed as
a defendant, along with the
FBI, Oregon State Police,
Gov. Kate Brown and others.
FBI spokeswoman
Beth Anne Steele said
the agency does not com-
ment on pending litigation.
Representatives for the gov-
ernor and state police did not
immediately return messages
seeking comment.
Finicum served as a
spokesman for the armed
group led by Ammon and
Ryan Bundy that occu-
pied the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in 2016 to
oppose federal control of
land in the U.S. West and
the imprisonment of two
ranchers.
I n v e s t i g a t o r s d e t e r-
mined that state troopers
were justified in shoot-
ing Finicum three times in
the back after he exited his
vehicle at a police road-
block, put his hands in the
air and then reached toward
a handgun in his inner jacket
pocket.
The investigation also
found that an FBI agent at
the scene failed to disclose
that he fired two rounds
that missed Finicum. The
agent, W. Joseph Astarita,
has pleaded not guilty to fed-
eral charges of making false
statements and obstruction
of justice. He is listed as a
defendant in the lawsuit.
The complaint compares
the shooting of Finicum to
the high-profile shooting of
a North Korean defector in
November 2017. It notes that
the North Korean man sur-
vived and made it across the
border to a friendlier govern-
ment on the other side.
“The story was captivat-
ing, because in the American
psyche, the idea of being shot
in the back by your own gov-
ernment for trying to cross a
border is unthinkable,” the
lawsuit said.
It claims Finicum was
shot “assassination style”
while trying to cross from
Harney County into Grant
County for a meeting with a
sheriff who was sympathetic
to the ranchers’ cause.
Dozens of people took
over the remote refuge in
southeastern Oregon from
Jan. 2 to Feb. 11, 2016. They
were allowed to come and go
for several weeks as authori-
ties tried to avoid blood-
shed seen in past standoffs
at Waco, Texas, and Ruby
Ridge, Idaho.
But authorities moved in
Jan. 26 when key standoff
leaders left the refuge for a
community meeting in neigh-
boring Grant County, pulling
over two vehicles and arrest-
ing the occupiers inside.
Finicum, 54, was driving
one vehicle. Video taken by
a passenger showed the occu-
pants panicking after authori-
ties stopped the truck.
With his window rolled
down, Finicum shouted at
officers: “Shoot me, just
shoot me! Put the bullet
through me.”
Finicum then sped off,
coming to a roadblock and
plowing into a snowbank.
The complaint says more
than a dozen current and for-
mer Arizona officials wrote
a letter to Oregon’s gover-
nor, asking her to conduct
a more transparent investi-
gation into what happened
next.
“Defendant has refused,”
according to the lawsuit.
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SUICIDE: Parents’
involvement is
critical to awareness
Continued from page 1
High School to follow later.
The community event,
scheduled for 6 to 7:30
p.m. Monday, February 5,
at Sisters High School is
designed in part to expand
the care and connect concept
to the entire local population.
In addition, presenters will
share pertinent information
that includes real statistics,
warning signs, action steps,
and resources.
The school assemblies
will take place the following
day at a later date, still to be
determined. Parents will be
welcome to attend as well.
Among the present-
ers are Jason and Kristy
Winebarger, whose 12-year-
old son Jacob died by suicide
here in Central Oregon in
January 2016, when he was
a seventh-grader at Skyview
Middle School in Bend. In
the time since their son’s
death, the Winebargers have
made themselves available to
schools and other organiza-
tions to support suicide pre-
vention education.
A d d i t i o n a l l y, s c h o o l
counselors, health teachers,
school nurses and other men-
tal-health professionals will
take part in the presentations.
Oregon actually remains
among the states in America
with the highest suicide rates,
and in the past two months at
least two students have died
by suicide in Central Oregon,
bringing the reality close to
home.
“Our aim is to do all we
can so that parents and stu-
dents themselves can under-
stand more about how to pre-
vent suicide,” said Heather
Johnson, a health teacher at
Sisters High School. Johnson
collects data from students
each year through her class-
room and with the Oregon
Healthy Teens survey, and
the statistics are sobering.
One of the statistics from
last year’s ninth- and elev-
enth-graders at Sisters High
School indicated that about
a quarter (25 percent) of stu-
dents had either experienced
suicidal thoughts or actually
made attempts at suicide.
Knowing when students
are struggling is a key part of
prevention, which is one of
the reasons Johnson is work-
ing to expand a concept she
calls “Care and Connect.”
Students in Johnson’s
classes are taught about the
power of individual stu-
dents taking action when
they notice a friend or class-
mate who exhibits warning
signs, which can include
withdrawal, talk of feel-
ing depressed, change in
behavior/manner, drug and
alcohol use and difficult life
experiences.
One simple way of think-
ing of warning signs includes
the three “H”s, which stand
for feeling helpless, hopeless
and/or hapless.
“ We u s e C a r e a n d
Connect cards that students
can fill out anonymously that
allow them to communicate
their concerns about students
they are concerned about,
including themselves. I then
turn those over to a counselor
or other professional sup-
port staff to follow up on,”
Johnson said.
The Care and Connect
cards help to overcome the
“code of silence” that tends
to be pervasive in our soci-
ety, especially among teens,
according to Johnson.
“Kids tend to think they
are protecting their friends
by keeping secrets, or they
think that if they speak up
their friends will be angry
with them,” said Johnson.
“We are working to help stu-
dents understand that truly
caring means urging friends
to get help or to tell a trusted
adult who can offer proper
support.”
The Winebargers have
wisdom to share with other
parents, and students as well,
that they truly hope will help
families avoid the tragedy
they have experienced.
In an interview by KTVZ
in September 2016, Jason
Winebarger said, “What
we’ve been through, we want
to prevent anyone else from
having to go through that.
You don’t want to be a mem-
ber of this club.”
According to Johnson, the
Care and Connect assemblies
will allow attendees to learn
more about local resources,
but even more importantly,
how each person, as a friend,
neighbor, classmate or family
member can make a pivotal
difference in preventing sui-
cide from happening.
“The bottom line is that
we have to look out for each
other and be able to recog-
nize when those around us
need immediate care,” she
said.
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