They have been invited to a meeting in John Day, another city nearby, by the Sheriff. There were supposedly 100 or so people waiting in a rec center who were told the scheduled speakers would not be arriving.
Were they on back roads?
No. I am very familiar with the area. They were on what passes for the main highway going north/south in that area. It would be very difficult to go from Burns to John Day any other way, even for locals at this time of year. Impossible at night for out-of-area people.
Were they trying to avoid a larger confrontation?
No, I believe they thought they were negotiating and meeting with authorities in a public forum good faith.
I heard that they were going to a another meeting there.
Yes, they were.
Apparently the Sheriff who invited them was part of the team that took them down, so it seems like they were lured out of the Refuge with a false offer by LEOs, then intercepted on the road. Whether it was a full ambush is hard to say, but one of the survivors say there were many men in the woods with target rifles with laser sighting devices and that 120 shots were fired at the vehicle Levon was driving.
See my previous post for her first hand account of how it went down.
You are correct JB