LaVoy should have immediately left his gun in the vehicle before exiting. The second he reached for his pocket, he knows he's going to be shot. If he is shot and were unarmed, the nation would have been in a rage. Poor thinking on his part.
I trust most FBI agents in most situations. As for the ones at an ambush after a promise of safe passage, I find trust difficult. I imagine LaVoy felt the same. He may have believed (perhaps correctly) that, armed or not, they would find his gun in his pocket/holster/waistband after shooting him. He may even have followed your advice, and they still found guns on him.
It is not clear to me from the video whether LaVoy was reaching for a gun/pocket, steadying himself on uneven snow, or actually shot before the movement that is claimed to have provoked the shooting and reaching for where he was hit. What is clear is that they were prepared to kill at least one of the people promised "safe passage", to make sure that decent people get the message - Obama's minions will not tolerate anything less than worshipful obedience.
Intentional act on his part, IMO.
Now, in some eyes, he is a martyr.
I am not an advocate for violent resistance, but any resistance, even non violent has often descended into the violent kind and that definitely includes the Civil Rights situation.
When the pictures and films of Bull Connor’s dogs and water cannon in action were spread around, many white people were ashamed and black people were enraged into seeing any police action against them in all parts of the country as the equivalent of Connor’s actions leading to riots in cities everywhere in the end.
Timing can be right if circumstances are planned, perhaps there’s some sort of unplanned circumstance going on.
I want peace but I have no control over what others choose to do or how events unfold in the days ahead.
He apparently was shot by an agent in his left side while his hands were raised up. He grabbed his left side to reduce the pain. He was then shot in the right shoulder by a second agent. Finicum staggered and then was shot from his rear and killed by a third agent. Go to YouTube then search for LaVoy Finicum to see the video evidence. This violent confrontation could have been avoided if the FBI would have been more patient with the protesters.
What I saw looked like someone reacting to pain - I think he was shot from the front and reflex reached down. It was an awkward reach, not something like someone reaching for a weapon.
Just don’t know.
I still don’t understand why the government is acting so aggressively to this situation. There are many other situations where it doesn’t escalate like this.
If he was unarmed they would have covered it up.
There was NO reason to shoot this guy. Who are these "agents" that can go home at night after doing this?
How twisted do you have to be to shoot a guy with his hands in the air? Even if he did reach for his waist they should have held their fire. He was surrounded and did not have a chance but that does not fit with today's shoot at the first opportunity mentality. What they did was an execution, pure and simple.
That is the message that our imperial overlords wanted to send to us peasants. OBEY or suffer... more than we are going to make you suffer.