A Cottonwood man was among those arrested by Oregon State Police Tuesday, Jan. 26, in connection to the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge buildings.
Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, was arrested without incident at 5:50 p.m. near Bend, Ore.
Roughly an hour and half earlier along Highway 395 outside Burns, Ore., 130 miles east of Bend, state police pulled over a vehicle containing several armed militants from the standoff. During that incident shots were fired, but it is not clear how many or by whom.
Ryan Waylen Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont., suffered non-life-threatening injuries and LaVoy Finicum, 54, a rancher from Mohave County, Ariz., was killed. Finicum had stated in a Jan. 6 video interview with NBC News that he would rather be killed than be taken into custody. Finicum was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest.
Those arrested near Burns include Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nev., Shawna Cox, 59, Kanab, Utah, Ammon Edward Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, and Ryan C. Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nev.
The Bundys are the leaders of the militants and the sons of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who led an armed confrontation with Bureau of Land Management and other federal officials in 2014.
At 6:30 p.m., 40 minutes after O’Shaughnessy’s arrest, FBI agents arrested Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in Burns, Ore.
At 8:30 p.m., Jon Eric Ritzheimer, 32, of Peoria, turned himself into the Peoria Police Department on a federal charge related to the occupation.
All the defendants “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, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 372,” according to the FBI.
O’Shaughnessy had been arrested in Arizona in January 2008, charged with possession of dangerous drugs for sale and possession of methamphetamine paraphernalia before being released on a $7,500 bond. In April 2008, he was charged with conspiracy, dangerous drug violation, drug paraphernalia, aggravated DUI and two counts of misconduct involving weapons.
According to the Washington Post Jan. 28, “In 2014, Santilli interviewed a ‘Capt. Joe O’Shaughnessy,’ whom the conservative radio host identified as being a retired firefighter who was involved in the Bundy Ranch standoff. ‘I was actually at the house most of the time; I was doing security for Cliven [Bundy] and his family,’ O’Shaughnessy said in the interview.”
O’Shaughnessy maintains two active and public Facebook accounts. Posting as “Joe Oshaughnessy [Cpt O],” he stated Jan. 25, “It’s just amazed me …. all these years …. People telling me how they were just waiting for the right time …. So they could stand up and make their voices heard …. So they could take a stand against what’s wrong and stand up for what’s right …. The time is now …. yet no one steps up to the plate. Remember the Alamo, God & Country, Cpt O”
Based on his posts, O’Shaughnessy appears to be a member of the Northern Nevada Oath Keepers.
According to its site, the Oath Keepers “is a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.’ That oath, mandated by Article VI of the Constitution itself, is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches or to detain Americans as ‘enemy combatants’ in violation of their ancient right to jury trial.”
Earlier during the day of his arrest, O’Shaughnessy posted the following:
“Alert****Alert***** Come Saturday Northern Nevada Oath Keepers will be finishing up their rotation at the Narrows FOB. I would like to personally thank Gary Underhill and his team. Who have been one of the most solid and honorable groups of men I have had the honor of working with. Although it will be a tough act to follow I am now looking for a team to rotate in.
“Please go to the Pacific Patriots Network or Oath Keeper website to check in or you can contact me directly. We are in need of trained medical personnel, camp security and individuals [with] CPSD experience …. Thanks again to all of you that have helped in the past without you none of this would be possible. GOD & Country, Cpt O”
By 7:19 p.m., a person had left a comment directly to O’Shaughnessy, stating, “I heard there were shots fired and people are being taken to the hospital.” By 8:17 p.m., another individual confirmed that O’Shaughnessy had been arrested.
It is unclear when O’Shaughnessy arrived at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge buildings.
Militants continue to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge buildings. While members of the group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom say there are 150 militants at the building, The Oregonian newspaper reported the number is between 20 and 30.
The militants took over the buildings Jan. 2 in protest of two ranchers who were sentenced to five years in prison for arson on federal land adjacent to their property in 2001 and 2006.
