liscio declaration exhibit 9 - oregonlive

LISCIO DECLARATION

EXHIBIT 9

Case 3:17-cr-00226-JO Document 73-4 Filed 04/12/18 of 4

000 Case Narrative, Ron Brown

>CSOl .~: February 2, 2016

Attach men ts: None Narrative:

Page: 65 of 67

On January 26, 2015 I was on duty as a detective for the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. I was advised that Oregon State Police had been involved in an offic.er involved shooting in Harney County and that our agency (Deschutes County Sherlfrs Office) would be conducting with the investigation. I was advised by DCS0#7 that I was going to be the case agent for the Investigation. We were assisted by detectives from Bend Police Department, Redmond Police Department, and Oregon State Police. After a briefing at the Bend Sherifrs Office, we convoyed to the command post in Burns. I was assigned to process the shooting scene. ( had limited prior knowledge of the armed takeover of the Wildlife Refuge near Burns. I did not know any of the details of the shooting incident prior to being assigned to this case. I was told that this shooting was stemmed from that takeover. I met with members of the Major Incident Team at the Bend Sheriff's Office and was briefed on the incident before heading to Burns. The initial information I received was that FBI and Oregon State Police had initiated a traffic stop with two vehicles on Highway 395, north of Burns. One of the vehicles sped off from the stop location and was engaged in a short pursuit. The driver of the vehicle had left the roadway, almost striking an FBI agent and then became stuck in the snow. The driver, Lavoy Finicum, exited the vehicle with his hands up but was not compliant with commands from the officers on scene. Finicum reached into his coat where he was believed to have a weapon and was shot by two members of the OSP SWAT team. The shooting happened about 1645 hours. I arrived at the Command Post in Burns, Oregon at about 0000 hours on January 27, 2016. Assignments were made for the team members to investigate the incident. I went to the initial traffic stop location and then proceeded to the location of the shooting. l arrived at the initial stop location at about 0114 hours on January 27, 2016. The GPS location for this location is N43 48.726 Wl 18 59.080, which is between milepost 52 and 53 on Highway 395. Two members oftbe Oregon State Police Forensic Lab were with me to process the evidence. I also bad OSP#A with the Oregon State Police assisting at the scene. DCS0#4 and DCS0#3 from the Deschutes County Sberlfrs Office were on scene as well. I asked DCS0#3 and DCS0#4 to assist Oregon State Police. I worked primarily with the Oregon State Police Crime Lab in processing evidence. DCSO#l 7 and BPD#3572 arrived to assist with scene reconstruction. The Jeep that was part of the two vehicle convoy that was stopped, was stiJI parked i.n the location of the original stop. The Jeep Is a

~ model Jeep Rubicon, brown/rust in color with Arizona license We photographed this area and had a Harney County ~ 'ity stay with the Jeep until the search warrant was obtained and the Jeep could be removed and searched .

.:ontinued on to the second stop location where the shooting occurred and arrived at 0131 hours. This location is at milepost 51.1 on Highway 395, GPS coordinates are N 43 49.615 Wl18 58.291.1 was met there by Detective OSP#C who walked me through what bis understanding of the scene. OSP#C also told me that he had some weapons and property that was taken from occupants of the Jeep on the initial traffic stop. I later documented and transferred those Items to my vehicle and secured them. The roadway in this area was a two lane highway that ran mostly north and south with one lane in each direction. The roadway is asphalt construction with a yellow painted centerline and a white painted fog line on each outside edge. There were snowbanks on both sides of the road that were about three feet high. The snow banks extended to about 12 to 18 inches from t.he fog line on the both sides of the roadway. I saw the suspect vehicle (20 15 Dodge Pickup with canopy and Arizona license stuck in the snow off the west side of the roadway. There were several OSP detectives on scene to keep the scene secured until I arrived. A supplemental report will follow on the scene log. I was able to see three visible places on the pickup that had damage consistent with bullets fired from a gun. There was a hole in the front right corner of the hood, just above and to the right of the passenger headlight. There was damage to the driver's side mirror that was consistent with a bullet striking the outside edge of the mirror and continuing on to the pillar behind the rear driver's side door. There was a third area on the roof just above the rear passenger area that went into and through the roof about even with the center of the cab brake light and headliner of the interior. All of the glass in the doors of the pickup was broke out. The windshield was damaged that was consistent with strikes from the gas canisters. The damage to the windshield was not consistent with bullet holes and did not fully penetrate the windshield. The damage to the windshield appeared to be from the inside out. The driver's side and rear windows of the canopy on the pickup were broke out. The windows on the passenger side of the canopy were intact. All the tires on the pickup were Inflated. The pickup was lodged in the snow at an angle with the driver's side sitting higher than the passenger side. The passenger side of the pickup was buried in snow about eight to twelve inches above the bottom of the door which prevented the doors from opening. The driver's side was buried up to the bottom of the doors which caused the doors to make a slight indentation in the snow when they were opened. I saw when I later reviewed the overhead video and saw that the driver's side was higher at the time of the shooting. I saw that part of the running board was exposed out of the snow. I also saw that the door made no impression In the snow when Finicum opened it. I noticed when l opened the driver's door, that it scraped more snow than it had earlier. This indicated to me that the heat ~ weight of the pickup caused it to sink further into the snow as time progressed.

·e was a deceased male suspect (later identified as Fioicum) on bis back in the snow about 25 feet off the left rear corner of the .up. His head was pointed towards the street and his feet were pointed towards the woods. I saw be was handcuffed behind bis

back and bad two visible injuries in bis upper body (chest area). The injuries were consistent with gunshot exit wounds. The male had bis clothing for his upper body pulled up towards bis shoulders. I was able to see patches on bis skin which I recognized as the type used by medical personnel to check heart activity. There was a pair of eyeglasses lying near the male's head as well as a cowboy type

Produced Pursuant to Protective Order WJA 0009092


Page: 66 of 67 bat. The male was wearing denim coat, tao fleece type vest, striped and black shirts, a white t-shlrt, blue jeans, and cowboy type boots. He bad a leather belt and a bunting type knife in a sheath on bis belt near the buckle. Later when the vehicle was moved, we were able to see a third injury to the upper left arm/shoulder area. That injury was consistent with a gunshot wound that went all the way

...J!u:!)ugh. r -...e was a cell phone in the snow partially covered by the male's clothing. Next to the cell phone was a ball point pen. In between the

.phone and the pen was a bullet with substance on It that was consistent with blood. The bullet was "mushroomed" consistent with ttrom my training and experience) being fired and going through a human body. Ao examination of the body by crime lab technicians, located a 9mm Ruger SR9 (serial number 331-35894) semi-automatic handgun with a full magazine and one bullet in the chamber. This gun was found in the left interior denim coat pocket on the deceased male. The gun was photographed in place and collected. There were two additional magazines loaded with 9mm bullets In were found in the male's right interior pocket of bis denim coat. The male bad a Wallet in his rear pants pocket with a Nevada driver's license that identified him as Robert Lavoy Fioicum (DOBl/27/1961) with an address in Fredonia, Arizona. I saw a silver Chevrolet C2500 pickup partially in the southbound lanes. The pickup was parked in the "V" of the two FBI vehicles that made up the road block. The pickup had emergency lights activated. I was advised by OSP#A that the pickup was operated by OSP#l, who was one of the shooters in the incident. OSP#A told me that there were two other law enforcement vehicles on scene at the time of the shooting. They were operated by FBI agents and bad left the scene and were reassigned to other details. They had taken their vehicles with them. One of the vehicles' wheels bad been marked by spray paint on the roadway to document its position at the time of the incident. OSP#A explained the location of each vehicle which I later confirmed by watching overhead video footage of the incident. OSP#A explained that there were two FBI pickups parked in a "V" formation in the roadway, blocking the roadway. I was able to determine that the positioning of the vehicles left an escape route into the snow bank which would have caused the suspect vehicle to come to a stop with an unlikelihood of injuries to the occupants. l saw numerous large diameter shell casings that were from gas canister casings that were fired at the suspect vehicle during the incident. Those casings were scattered around the roadway. All the casing locations were documented by DCSO#l7 with measurements. I saw several spikes that came from spike strips that were laid out in the road in front of the road block. Some of the spikes were on the snow bank on the east side of the road. The strips were removed prior to my arrival. Evidence technicians with the OSP Crime Lab photographed, documented, and collected the evidence at the scene, under the supervision of myself and other detectives with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. Refer to their report for details on the evidence collected. I observed the evidence when it was being packaged and saw it was the same evidence collected. I took control of the

~ence and transported it to the Oregon State Police office In Burns. l placed all of the sealed evidence in the secured evidence room - "'e Burns office with the assistance ofOSP#U. I retrieved the evidence from the Burns office on January 28 and transported and

.red it in the evidence lockers at the Bend Sherifrs Office. a met with the medical examiner, Sharon King, who arrived on scene at 1831 hours and was waiting for investigators to escort her into the scene to examine the body. She was parked in a location that she could see the body lying in the snow. I explained that she could examine the body as soon as the scene was documented. Once the body was photographed and documented, Sharon King examined and photographed the body. We then sealed the body in a body bag and I sealed the bag with evidence tape. After the medical examiner released the body and I was advised by DCS0#7 that the District Attorney authorized the body to be removed, I had a funeral home dispatched to pick up Finicum' s body. LaFollette's funeral home arrived and picked up the body and transported it to their funeral borne in Burns. I was advised by DCS0#21 that OSP#l 's rifle that be shot Finicum with was placed in the back seat of his (OSP#l 's) pickup at the scene. I searched the pickup and found the rifle on the back seat. The rifle was on "safe" and had a magazine in the magazine well. There was one Speer .223 bullet in the chamber. The rifle was a Noveske model N4 .223 caliber with serial number- The magazine had twenty three .223 Speer bullets. Including the one round in the chamber, there were 24 total rounds left in OSP# l 's rifle. All evidence items that were lying on the ground at the time I arrived, were dlagramed and marked with a location by DCSO#l7 and BPD#3572 so he could create a diagram of the of the scene with the Items documented in place. Once all the evidence was documented in place and a search warrant was obtained by DCS0#2. I bad a tow truck retrieve the Jeep that was at the original stop location and take It to the tow company lot where DCS0#2, DCS0#6, and DCS0#3 searched It. See their reports for details on that vehicle search. l requested another tow truck to retrieve the Dodge pickup out of the snow bank. Larkin's Towing arrived and pulled the Dodge out. The Dodge was stuck in the snow and it took two tow trucks about two hours to free the Dodge and drag it onto the street. I did a brief search of the Dodge, once it was out of the snow bank, for weapons and electronic devices, prior to having it towed to the Crime lab for a detailed search and analysis. OSP Crime Lab technicians were assisting me and photographed the pickup and Items taken from it. Inside the Dodge I found the following items: On the left rear floor I found a Taurus .38 special revolver with five bullet in the cylinder. The serial number is SF 41178 On the rear left passenger seat was a Kyocera cell phone. ~ the rear center seat was a Sanyo digital camera.

r 'the left rear floor at the door jamb, was a Samsung cell phone with a black and green case . . er the rear seat were two Smith and Wesson M&P 15 .223 caliber rifles. One rifle bad the butt of the gun pointed at the right rear

ooor. That gun bad a serial number of SW 47114. It was loaded with a magazine with 25 rounds of .223 ammunition. It had a night vision scope. The second rifle had the butt pointed to the left rear door and had a serial number of SM 10600 and bad a magazine with 25 .223 caliber ammunition. It bad a Leopold scope on it.

Produced Pursuant to Protect ive Order WJA 0 009093


Page: 67 of 67

On the front floorboard was a 8-1/2xll sheet of paper that was titled Citizen's Emergency Response Phone Number List. In the center console was an (Pad with a cover.

e above items were photographed and seized. wrapped the Dodge pickup with a tarp and I sealed the doors with evidence tape. The pickup was towed to the Bend OSP crime for further analysis by Larkin Towing. OSP#X followed the tow truck and secured the pickup in the OSP crime lab lot in Bend.

uCS0#3 was assisted by OSP Crime Lab technicians, did a thorough search of the pickup at a later date. See his report for details on that search. DCS0#4 was using a metal detector to locate shell casings from the shooting. He was able to find one Speer .223 shell casing in the snow at the west edge of the road, near where OSP#l was standing when he shot at Finicum. DCS0#4 did an extensive search of the roadway and the east side of the road with the metal detector to try and locate any more shell casings but did not locate any more. The tow truck with Finicum's pickup left the scene at about 0935 hours on January 27, 2016. The remaining deputies and crime lab technicians also left at this time. I was gone form the scene for about 10 minutes when I entered cell phone range. I received a call from DCS0#7 who instructed me to return and secure the scene. DCS0#7 said that there were officer coming to the scene to relieve me and do a walkthrough of the scene. I cleared the scene at about 1230 hours. On the evening of January 27, 2016 I was able to view the overhead video of the incident. After watching the video, I went back to the scene with OSP OSP#A on January 28 to search for more casings. I was able to locate another .223 Speer casing near the one that DCS0#4 found. I also found a bullet fragment in the snow on the west edge of the road prior to where the pickup left the roadway. This was consistent with the area that the pickup was believed to been shot at. The above items were photographed, collected, and placed in evidence by me OSP#A and I also drove the route that Finicum drove. I used my Go Pro video camera to film as we drove to the area of the road block in an effort to see if there was enough time for Finicum to stop without hitting the road block vehicles. I parked my pickup where the lead road block vehicle was parked. We then drove in OSP#A's vehicle at 70 MPH towards the road block. I was able to determine that Finicum had plenty of time to stop safely without hitting road block or spike strips in the road. We conducted this test two times, once with OSP#A's vehicle, and once in my pickup. I entered the video into evidence at the Sheriff's Office in Bend. End of report.

Produced Pursuant to Protective Order WJA 00 0 9094


liscio declaration exhibit 9 - oregonlive

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