Oregon Shooting: Officers Detail Shooting of LaVoy Finicum

"If you are being arrested by a police officer and you felt it was unlawful, that it was acceptable to resist event to the point of killing the police officer."

Those are the words of an Oregon State Police trooper - identified only by his badge number - in an interview with investigators looking into the shooting death of LaVoy Finicum.

Finicum - one of the leaders of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - had been shot and killed during a traffic stop as he and other occupation leaders headed to Grant County to meet with the Sheriff there.

Earlier this week, the District Attorney ruled that the troopers were justified in their actions, that they believed that Finicum was reaching to a gun and they were in danger.

It also came out that two shots had been fired by a FBI agent who denied having pulled the trigger.

He and four others are being investigated for their actions that day and in the aftermath.

The trooper was being asked to go through the day with investigators.

He was asked what he knew about those who had taken over the refuge.

"I'd been involved with it from the beginning," he said, adding that he had been at the refuge "observing, and I was familiar with the individuals that were involved.

The trooper said he was given an information packet by the FBI "with everybody's names, criminal history and if they had any, general descriptions, photographs."

He said he familiarized himself with the political arguments of the occupiers and whether they were known to have weapons.

In relation to Finicum, the trooper said "I had seen videos in which he stated that he wasn't going to go to prison and didn't plan on being taken alive."

The trooper said they met in Burns where the command post was set up.

He was part of a seven-trooper contingent from the Oregon State Police that would assist the FBI Hostage and Rescue Team.

They went over information and confirmed the plan was a go.

They set up position on Highway 395 with the main arrest team, which was part of.

"We set up at a snow park with our vehicles," he said, adding that one of the FBI agents and a trooper had done some reconnaissance earlier, determining the best location to set up.

"The plane that was overhead providing us updated intelligence continued to give us update on their location, direction of travel," he said. "They gave us kind of a countdown that they are within five miles of you, they are winning a mile, a quarter mile."

The troopers moved "towards the edge of the road, so that we would have a visual contact with them as they drove by."

The truck driven by Finicum failed to stop.

"We pulled around and rapidly caught up behind the truck," he said. "I saw them hit their brake lights, and they kind of stopped in the middle of the road."

The trooper got out of his vehicle and took cover while another trooper also got out and started yelling commands to Finicum and the others to get out of the truck.

One of the members of the FBI Hostage and Rescue team also got out and took a position providing cover to the officer talking with Finicum and Ryan Payne.

"Eventually there is conversations between the HRT members and Payne, and he acts like, Payne acts like, he's kind of half out of the truck," the trooper said. "He acts like he's going to go back in.

"He starts to kind of go back in."

That's when one of the troopers fires a less lethal sponge tip round, hitting Payne in the arm.

"You need to come out now," the trooper quotes his colleague as saying. "Put your hands up."

Payne did just that, according to the trooper, adding that his colleagues "grabbed hold of him, started to search him. Found a handgun."

With Payne in custody, the troopers focused on Finicum, telling him he is under arrest and needs to exit the truck.

Fincium, as has been shown in the video shot by Shawna Cox that was released earlier this week, refused.

"I'm not going to turn my vehicle off. You are going to have to shoot me."

The trooper said he turned to his colleague and asked, 'What did just say to you?'

"I wanted to confirm that's what I heard," the trooper said. "He said we are gong to have to shoot him. He's not coming out."

The trooper said that he started putting into motion a plan to fire less lethal rounds into the truck that would release a gas.

"Perhaps that would be enough to prevent them from driving off," he said.

As he was doing that, he said, "Mr. Finicum decided to flee."

Fincium starts driving off.

"I hop back in my vehicle," he said.

"As we came around the corner and saw the roadblock, I observed the white truck swerve to the left. It didn't appear to be slowing down at all," he said.

Tinicum's truck went into the snowbank.

"I see Mr. Finicum exit out the driver's door, and run through the snow," he said. "It appeared that he was reaching for a handgun."

The troopers took position. The hope was still to use a less lethal round to apprehend Finicum.

"I saw Mr. Finicum turn his back towards me and Officer Number One and then I saw is right arm again dig deeply in towards what I would term as maybe a shoulder holster."

The trooper said he raised his rifle and placed Finicum in his "cross hair."

Just as he did, the other officer "fired, and I distinctly heard him fire, and I knew it was him firing.

"And as soon as he fired and my scope just came up and was right in the middle of the back of Mr. Finicum and I squeezed off a single round."

The trooper said: "I could see that he was hit, and he immediately went down, and I could, for whatever reason, I could tell that he was not going to be a threat."

The trooper said that the others then gave up, the truck was cleared.

He ran up toward where Fincium was and asked the FBI agents who had surrounded the body, "Hey, why don't you guys get up on there and try to check him, give him some first aid."

The trooper said he would have given first aid but since was involved in the shooting, "I was a little apprehensive giving him first aid. If I had been myself, I would have.

"So they stared checking him, taking his pulse, checking his pulse, looking for exit wounds, and providing general first aid."

But it was too late.

Fincium would die there.

This story will be updated.

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