Oregon occupation protest leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested Tuesday in a highway traffic stop that ended in gunfire and left an anti-government rancher dead. Five others were also detained.
The brothers were seized about 45 miles north of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge where they began a sit-in on Jan. 2.
Related: Armed group refusing to leave Oregon Wildlife refuge
One of their supporters, Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum, 54, was killed in the shooting, his daughter told NBC News.
“We all thought it would end, but not like this,” Challice Finicum Finch said. “My dad did stress that they couldn’t pull a gun on them [officers] unless they pulled a gun. They were all committed to not firing on federal agents.”
Finicum had previously stated that he preferred death to jail, telling NBC News in a Jan. 6 interview that he had no intention of being taken into custody. “There are things more important than your life, and freedom is one of them,” he said at the time. “I’m prepared to defend freedom.”
At the federal wildlife refuge, protester Jason Patrick told NBC News that the remaining supporters were discussing if and how the occupation might end.
“Right now … I’m talking to other leadership. It’s just Americans that are defending the constitution that’s what it looks like,” he said.
Four carloads of occupiers left early Wednesday, and Patrick said children at the scene had gone.
“Peaceful resolution is what you keep hearing and a peaceful resolution is what we expect,” he added.
The Bundys and others had been scheduled to meet authorities in the town of John Day, 70 miles north of Burns at 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET).
The arrests took place on Highway 395, which links Burns and John Day. Shots were fired at about 4:25 p.m. (7:25 p.m. ET), when the FBI and Oregon State Police began an “enforcement action” in connection with the occupation, the FBI said.
“Peaceful people were going to meet with other Americans regarding the constitution and a routine traffic stop winds up with one of my friends dead and another one shot,” Patrick said.
Three others were arrested at the scene, authorities said: Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada; Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Montana.








