Oregon occupiers’ live video stream shows suspense among holdouts

The capture of its top leaders dealt the Ammon Bundy-led occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in rural Oregon a serious setback this week, but a few stragglers refuse to surrender their foothold.

An intermittent video live stream by one of the remaining occupiers is offering a unique perspective to the holdouts’ angst, resolve and confusion in their final days.

“We’re all at peace with our decision,” one man said as some of the group sat around a campfire Wednesday night. “We feel like there’s going to be a miracle here. And we’re praying for it.”

The FBI and the Oregon State Police said that three protesters left the refuge and turned themselves in at a checkpoint Wednesday afternoon. Authorities wouldn’t reveal the number of remaining occupiers, but a man on one of the YouTube videos said Thursday morning that four members remained after a fifth left during the night.

“That’s the difference with this group,” a man said at the Wednesday campfire. “We don’t do what we’re told. We kind of hunker down and we see a window down the way, and when we get there we make our stand.”

The Oregonian reported that David Fry, a 27-year-old Ohioan, is streaming the videos. After nightfall Wednesday, Fry could be heard admiring the beauty of the stars and the crackling of the campfire.

“But we’re probably going to end up dead,” said Fry, a bespectacled man with long dark hair. “Doesn’t that bother you? The world that is. I can’t live in that world.”

“Amen, David, that was beautiful,” a woman’s voice answered.

But in a video four hours later, Fry said that he and others would be willing to leave peacefully. However, he said, the FBI told them by phone that one of them — a man they identified as Sean — would be arrested and charged.

“We’re asking them to just drop the charges,” Fry said. “And nobody dies.”

According to the videos, it sounds like the holdouts may be heavily armed. In one video streamed overnight, Fry described what happened at the refuge when they learned about the arrests of organizer Ammon Bundy and seven others and the death of another occupier in a confrontation with law enforcement.

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“When they killed LaVoy [Finicum] and arrested the others, it was chaotic down here, it was absolute chaos,” he said. “People were just grabbing their things, just certain things, and driving their cars and zooming out. A lot of people even left their guns, lots of guns left behind. That’s how crazy it was — people just left a whole bunch of valuable things behind.”

Earlier on Wednesday, some of the remaining members could be seen inventorying weapons, asking which clips fit assault-like rifles. Fry, the YouTuber, is seen wearing a bandoleer full of shotgun shells around his waist.

Later, a couple of men discuss strategy on how to defend a back gate before looking at Fry and his camera phone.

“You weren’t live-streaming that, were you?” one asks. “Tell me you weren’t.”

“I just started like a minute ago,” Fry replies.

Two videos streamed Thursday morning reveal that the four diehards have apparently abandoned the refuges’ headquarters buildings and camped elsewhere on the 293-square-mile bird sanctuary. The occupation, which started as a protest to have federal lands turned over to local authorities, began Jan. 2 when members seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon.

One of the Thursday morning videos featured a camo-clad man and woman slow-dancing to a country-and-western song. The YouTube description was titled “Maybe last dance? Husband and wife.”

During the dance, a man with a revolver handle hanging out of his jacket and a pocket-size Constitution showing in his jeans, brings Fry a cup of coffee. About that time Fry spies movement in the distance.

“I guess we got company on the hill behind us,” he said. “Somebody’s on the hill watching us.”

At the end of the song, the emotional husband walks over to the camera and says he and his dancing partner want to go home but won’t because they’ve done nothing wrong and fear being charged.

“People say we’re risking our lives,” the burly man preaches into the camera. “That the feds are going to kill us. Really? That ain’t the America I know. I hope the patriots see this and help us.”

Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).