The leader of a group of armed protesters who had occupied a federal wildlife refuge in easte Oregon for 24 days was arrested along with four others late Tuesday after an armed confrontation left one person dead and another injured.
The FBI said authorities arrested Ammon Bundy, 40, his brother Ryan, 43, Brian Cavalier, 44, Shawna Cox, 59, and Ryan Payne, 32, during a traffic stop at around 4:25 p.m. local time on U.S. Highway 395.
Two other people were arrested separately in the nearby town of Bus. They were identfied as Joseph Donald O'Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50. The FBI said all those arrested face 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 also said one individual "who was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest is deceased." No other information about the deceased was immediately released pending formal identification by the local medical examiner's office. Another unidentified person suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was arrested.
The protesters were heading to a public meeting in the town of John Day about the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge when there was an confrontation with law enforcement on the highway, law enforcement officials told Fox News.
The Haey County Hospital in Bus is on lockdown out of conce that the protesters may cause a disturbance there.
Ammon Bundy's group, calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, seized the refuge's headquarters on Jan. 2 as part of a long-ruing dispute over public lands in the West. Specifically, the group wanted federal lands tued over to local authorities. The U.S. govement controls about half of all land in the West.
Federal law enforcement officers converged on the wildlife refuge after the arrests and were expected to remain at the site throughout the night. It was unclear how many members of the armed group, if any, were at the refuge when the law enforcement officers arrived.
Ammon and Ryan Bundy are the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the govement over grazing rights.
The protesters, including people from as far away as Arizona and Michigan, came to the frozen high desert of easte Oregon to decry what it calls onerous federal land restrictions and to object to the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires.
Local and state authorities had criticized the FBI recently for not taking action against Bundy's group, with some urging the protesters to leave peacefully.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.