One dead as wildlife refuge activists arrested in Oregon

The leaders of an armed group that has occupied a national wildlife refuge for the past three weeks have been arrested by the FBI and police in a traffic stop that sparked gunfire — and one death — in Oregon’s frozen high country.

Militant leader Ammon Bundy and his followers were reportedly heading to a community meeting in John Day, a town in Grant County, to discuss government management of public lands.

The FBI and Oregon State Police said agents made eight arrests, including Bundy, 40; his brother Ryan, 43; Brian Cavalier, 44; Shawna Cox, 59; and Ryan Payne, 32, during a traffic stop on Highway 395.

Two others — Joseph O’Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50 — were arrested separately in Burns, a town about 110km away, while FBI agents in Arizona arrested another, Jon Ritzheimer, 32.

Police said troopers were involved in the traffic-stop shooting.

One man had non-life-threatening wounds and was treated in hospital, while another, “who was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest” was killed.

Bundy’s group seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2 as part of a long-running dispute over public lands in the West.