The last four holdouts of the armed protest group that has occupied a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for the past 40 days told reporters they would tu themselves in Thursday moing.
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Cliven Bundy was arrested Wednesday evening. (Multnomah County Sheriff)
The development came as Cliven Bundy -- who led a Nevada standoff with federal officers in 2014 and who is also the father of the jailed leader of the Oregon standoff -- was arrested in Portland.
Sean Anderson, 48, of Riggins, Idaho said he spoke with the FBI and that he and the three other holdouts would tu themselves in at a nearby checkpoint at 8 a.m. local time.
"We're not surrendering, we're tuing ourselves in. It's going against everything we believe in," he said.
The decision followed a tense standoff with law enforcement officers that played out on the Inteet via a phone line being livestreamed by an acquaintance of occupier David Fry.
Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio, sounded increasingly unraveled as he continually yelled, at times hysterically, at what he said was an FBI negotiator. "You're going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with," he said. "We're iocent people camping at a public facility, and you're going to murder us."
"The only way we're leaving here is dead or without charges," Fry said, who told the FBI to "get the hell out of Oregon" and said the group was surrounded by armored vehicles. The occupiers also said they saw snipers on a hill and a drone.
Fry and Anderson are the last remnants of the group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 to oppose federal land-use policies. The three others are Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and Anderson's wife, Sandy.
"They're threatening us," Sandy Anderson said. "They're getting closer. I pray that there's a revolution if we die here tonight."
"We will not fire until fired upon," said Sean Anderson. "We haven't broken any laws, came here to recognize our constitutional rights."
A Nevada legislator, Michele Fiore, called in to try to get the occupiers to calm down. Fiore said she could help them only if they stayed alive.
"I need you guys alive," said the Republican member of the Nevada Assembly who was in Portland earlier in the day to show support for Ammon Bundy, the jailed leader of the occupation. The occupiers prayed with Fiore and others as the situation dragged on for hours.
Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement the situation had reached a point where it "became necessary to take action" to ensure the safety of all involved.
Bretzing said one of the occupiers rode an ATV outside "the barricades established by the militia" at the refuge. When FBI agents tried to approach the driver, Fry said he retued to the camp at a "high rate of speed."
The FBI placed agents at barricades ahead of and behind the occupier's camp, Bretzing said.
"It has never been the FBI's desire to engage these armed occupiers in any way other than through dialogue, and to that end, the FBI has negotiated with patience and restraint in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully," he said in a statement.
Authorities had for weeks allowed the occupiers to come and go freely from the remote refuge, leading to criticism from local and state officials that law enforcement wasn't doing enough to end the situation.
Ammon Bundy was arrested Jan. 26 as he and other main figures of the occupation were traveling to the town of John Day. Four others were also arrested in that confrontation, which resulted in the shooting death of the group's spokesman, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. The FBI said Finicum was reaching for a gun.
Most of the occupiers fled the refuge after that. Authorities then surrounded the property and later got the holdouts added to an indictment charging 16 people with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers.
At first, Bundy urged the last holdouts to go home. But in response to the grand jury indictment, he took a more defiant tone from jail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.