One person was killed and several others arrested in the US state of Oregon in a Tuesday shootout between police and anti-government gunmen that had been occupying a federal wildlife refuge.
The FBI said that Ammon Bundy, the rancher who led the January 2 occupation in the northwestern state, was among five people arrested when federal agents and state troopers stopped vehicles carrying the activists on a remote ice-covered highway. Bundy, 40, faces a federal felony charge "of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats," the FBI said in a statement. During the arrest operation "there were shots fired," the statement read.
Authorities did not immediately identify the dead person, who the newspaper Oregonian said was group spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. The FBI said another person "suffered non-life threatening injuries" and was rushed to a local hospital before being arrested. The group was stopped on the highway while traveling in two vehicles, media reported.
Cliven Bundy confirmed LaVoy Finicum's death on his Facebook page, saying that he "was Shot and murdered in Cold blood on Wednesday in Burns Oregon" (sic) by the FBI and state police. The FBI has scheduled a 1830 GMT press conference to give details on the arrests.