Family members of a rancher who was shot and killed by police
during the 2016 armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge have sued the
U.S. government, Federal Bureau of Investigation, state of Oregon and others
claiming he was willfully “executed.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Portland nearly
two years to the day after Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 54, was shot dead by Oregon
State Police on Jan. 26, 2016, along a snow-covered road near the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge.
“As it turns out, he was deliberately executed by a pre-planned
government ambush, after he had exited his vehicle with his hands up,” the
plaintiffs allege in their 48-page lawsuit.