(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Bundy family has issued a statement in response to FBI Director Kashyap Patel honoring the agents who shot at them during the 2016 Malheur Wildlife Refuge standoff—an incident that resulted in the death of rancher, foster parent and constitutional activist Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.
As has been widely documented, the FBI and local law enforcement had set up a roadblock to stop Finicum and several other activists, who had left the refuge to attend a public meeting during the standoff. Agents and state police shot at their vehicle as they approached. Finicum got out of his truck with his hands in the air, but was gunned down by Oregon State Police anyway.
The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team initially denied firing at Finicum, but agents were later caught engaging in a coverup—removing bullet casings from the crime scene at the dead of night. The FBI was later determined to have fired at least two shots. One FBI HRT operator was indicted over the matter, but a jury acquitted him in 2018.
Fast forward to last year, and a DOJ Inspector General’s report found that Attorney General Bill Barr blocked it from conducting an investigation into the FBI’s conduct in the Finicum shooting.
"The FBI shot at the vehicle when Lavoy was driving. Then FBI agents continued to shoot into the vehicle after it was stopped—shooting my brother in the arm, (the bullet is still in his arm today)," — @RealABundy https://t.co/RSD9ZtQT9R
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) July 10, 2024
Adding insult to all that injury, last month Director Patel honored those same agents who participated in the coverup.
OregonLive.com reported on Aug. 16 that “Patel in July presented the team members, including agent W. Joseph Astarita who was acquitted on charges related to the showdown, with the FBI’s Shield of Bravery at a ceremony at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.”
The OregonLive article included an apparent photo from an internal FBI newsletter. The photo of Patel and the FBI agents who killed Finicum included the caption: “Recipients are recognized for courageous acts in the line of duty or within the scope of their FBI employment. The Hostage Resuce Team responded to a violent extremist militia group’s armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.
“When the militia’s leader and key members planned to meet clandestinely outside the refuge, the FBI and the Oregon State Police staged a traffic stop to arrest them,” the caption continued. “The leader rammed his vehicle into the lead HRT vehicle, trapping SA John Neidert under the leader’s vehicle.”
Bundy family leader Ammon Bundy released a statement on Wednesday that debunks the FBI newsletter.
Bundy explained that Finicum and the others weren’t traveling to a “clandestine meeting,” but to a public county meeting attended by hundreds of citizens. Nor did they ram into an HRT vehicle. In fact, they swerved to miss the HRT, and they certainly didn’t pin an agent underneath the truck.
BUNDY FAMILY PUBLIC STATEMENT
Statement Regarding the FBI’s Shield of Bravery Award, the Shooting Death of LaVoy
Finicum, and the Injury of Ryan Bundy.🚨🚨SEE COMMENTS FOR FULL STATEMENT!🚨🚨
Video Link – Shooting Death of LaVoy Finicum:
👇👇👇https://t.co/e5XInedC8U pic.twitter.com/5vS80kSBCw
— Ammon Bundy (@RealABundy) September 3, 2025
Bundy further revealed that one of the bullets from the shooting hit his brother, Ryan Bundy. He said Ryan intends to have the bullet removed and analyzed to see who really shot him—Oregon police or the FBI.
To that end, Bundy called for a congressional investigation. He also called for the FBI and OSP to cooperate fully in the ballistics comparison once the bullet is removed from Ryan’s arm.
“This is not about vengeance. This is about truth … Now, as medals are pinned on the very agents involved, Ryan Bundy will bear the pain once more to give the American people a piece of unalterable evidence: the bullet in his arm. That bullet may prove not only that the FBI agent fired shots that they did not admit—but that one of those hidden rounds struck Ryan himself,” Ammon said.
“The bullet will speak the truth, it’s past time for the FBI to do the same.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
