Washington Post: Growing Concern About FBI Sniper Actions In Oregon Standoff

The two-month standoff between Oregon militia members and police came to a violent end in January, with the shooting of militia leader Robert “LaVoy” Finicum by Oregon state troopers.

But now the Washington Post reports “new details have emerged” about the controversial conduct of FBI Hostage Rescue Team snipers.

The Post article portrays the current state of the investigation as considerably messier than readers casually following the story might have suspected.

The FBI team has been accused of firing at Finicum’s truck, failing to report their shots as required, and actually taking steps to cover their tracks by collecting their spent shell casings:

Last week, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson, who is overseeing the investigation, said he had concluded that “FBI HRT operators fired two shots as Mr. Finicum exited the truck, and one shot hit the truck.” Nelson accused the agents of failing to “disclose their shots to our investigators.”

The five FBI agents have denied firing assault rifles during the incident. But in a recently released interview, an Oregon State Police officer told investigators that he spotted two copper-colored rifle casings near the spot where the FBI agents were standing. The Hostage Rescue Team has used copper- ­colored casings, former agents said; the Oregon state police use only silver-colored casings. The copper casings were never recovered.

Meanwhile, the Portland Oregonian reported Tuesday that FBI surveillance video taken after the shooting shows the agents searching the area with flashlights and huddling. One of them then bends over twice and appears to be picking up something.

On Wednesday, a law enforcement official confirmed the video account. If allegations of a coverup are determined to be true, the incident would be hugely embarrassing to the FBI and deal a devastating blow to the FBI team’s reputation.

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