It sure is.
Mark McConnell posted a video to Facebook Wednesday morning, recounting the Tuesday afternoon scene that led to Finicum's death and the subsequent arrest of eight people involved in the Jan. 2 takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.In his video, McConnell said Ammon Bundy and Cavalier were in the vehicle he was driving to John Day for a community meeting. He said Finicum was driving a pickup that carried Ryan Bundy, Payne, Cox and the 18-year-old woman.
He said as they traveled on U.S. 395 police vehicles pulled in behind them and stopped them. McConnell said he was removed by police first, then Ammon Bundy then Cavalier.
McConnell said he noticed movement, and Finicum "took off" in the pickup with the remaining passengers. He said Payne and Cox described encountering a police roadblock about a mile north on the highway and apparently tried to get around it, becoming stuck in the snow.
"When he exited the vehicle, the rear wheels were still spinning," McConnell said. "He charged at law enforcement" and was shot. (emphasis added)
McConnell disputed earlier accounts on social media that Finicum was shot while on his knees with his hands up.
Victoria Sharp’s account
Sharp also shared her story of what unfolded outside of Burns in a YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y92PvMFL0Eg
In a 12-minute audio-only video on YouTube, Sharp said that after they were stopped by police, Payne was trying to get her and Cox safely out of the car when police took their first shot.
“He put his hands out the window, he was trying to talk with them,” said Sharp, who was raised in Kansas but lists on her Facebook page that she is currently living in Montana.
“Ryan (Payne) said, ‘We have women in the car, let the women out,” she said, “He stuck his head out and they shot at him... but they missed him.”
Sharp said that they began to realize that the police “meant business” and that Finicum, who was driving, yelled that he was going to continue driving so that he could “talk to the sheriff.”
“He drove and we all got down on the floorboards and they just started firing at us, shooting at us a bunch of times,” she said, adding that Finicum reached the roadblock and his truck rammed into a snowbank.
With the car running, she said, Finicum “got out of the car and he had his hands in the air and he was like, ‘Just shoot me then, just shoot me.’”
“And they did,” she said. “They shot him dead.”
Sharp said she thought she heard as many as 100 bullets fired and that those remaining in the car were getting “gassed.” She said they were trying to find something white they could wave out the window.
Sharp said that while some in the car with her had their guns, she believed that none of the occupiers had attempted to use them. She said Ryan Bundy was hit by a bullet in the shoulder as they were ducking down in the car.
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/01/militant_shot_and_killed_while.html
He wasn’t on his knees, but he didn’t come out of the truck with guns ablazin like Butch and Sundance either. We need sound and a closer view to know.
“When he exited the vehicle, the rear wheels were still spinning,” McConnell said.
= = =
If they were, it was really hard for McConnell to see from the distance where he was, and buried in the snow and all.
Unless someone on scene told him this little tidbit to add ‘realism’ to his statement.