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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation  |  Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED   » NEWS NOW   Fourth-graders will get to learn and play in the snow       ...       Since You Asked: Hunters getting into the swing of things with mandatory reporting       ...       Log shortage forces another round of layoffs at Rough & Ready       ...       Fourth-graders will get to learn and play in the snow       ...       Since You Asked: Hunters getting into the swing of things with mandatory reporting       ...       Log shortage forces another round of layoffs at Rough & Ready       ...           The Latest: Refuge occupier says members will turn themselves in Comment By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Feb. 10, 2016 at 6:36 PM Updated Feb 10, 2016 at 10:33 PM By The Associated Press Posted Feb. 10, 2016 at 6:36 PM Updated Feb 10, 2016 at 10:33 PM »  Social News Refuge occupier Sean Anderson says he spoke with the FBI and that he and three other holdouts will turn themselves in at a nearby FBI checkpoint at 8 a.m. Thursday. Anderson relayed the news to Nevada lawmaker Michele Fiore over a phone line streaming on the Internet as she was driving to the refuge. Anderson said they plan to leave their weapons in their vehicles and walk one-by-one to the checkpoint while carrying an American flag. He says he expects Fiore to meet them at the checkpoint Thursday morning. EARLIER STORY PORTLAND — The FBI surrounded the last four occupiers of a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon on Wednesday night as the holdouts argued with a negotiator, yelled at law enforcement officers in armored vehicles to back off and prayed with supporters over an open phone line. The tense standoff between law enforcement officers and the four occupiers played out on the Internet via a phone line being livestreamed by an acquaintance of occupier David Fry. Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio, sounded increasingly unraveled as he continually yelled, at times hysterically, at what he said was an FBI negotiator. "You're going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with," he said. "We're innocent people camping at a public facility, and you're going to murder us." "The only way we're leaving here is dead or without charges," Fry said, who told the FBI to "get the hell out of Oregon." Fry and the three others are the last remnants of an armed group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 to oppose federal land-use policies. The three others are Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and married couple Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, of Riggins, Idaho Fry said Wednesday the group was surrounded by armored vehicles. A Nevada legislator, Michele Fiore, called in to try to get the occupiers to calm down. Fiore said she could help them only if they stayed alive. "I need you guys alive," said the Republican member of the Nevada Assembly who was in Portland earlier in the day to show support for Ammon Bundy, the jailed leader of the occupation. Fiore told occupiers Wednesday night she was driving to the refuge to try to help negotiate their exit from the refuge. The occupiers prayed with Fiore and others as the situation dragged on for hours Wednesday night. Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said in a statement the situation had reached a point where it "became necessary to take action" to ensure the safety of all involved. Bretzing said one of the occupiers rode an ATV outside "the barricades established by the militia" at the refuge. When FBI agents tried to approach the driver, Fry said he returned to the camp at a "high rate of speed." The FBI placed agents at barricades ahead of and behind the occupier's camp, Bretzing said. "It has never been the FBI's desire to engage these armed occupiers in any way other than through dialogue, and to that end, the FBI has negotiated with patience and restraint in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully," he said in a statement. Authorities had for weeks allowed the occupiers to come and go freely from the remote refuge, leading to criticism from local and state officials that law enforcement wasn't doing enough to end the situation. Group leader Ammon Bundy and others were arrested Jan. 26 on a remote road outside the refuge, but the four holdouts remained. On Wednesday night Sandy Anderson said after the group was surrounded: "They're threatening us. They're getting closer. I pray that there's a revolution if we die here tonight." Her husband, Sean Anderson, said in the livestream: "We will not fire until fired upon. We haven't broken any laws, came here to recognize our constitutional rights." The occupiers said they saw snipers on a hill and a drone. The standoff was occurring on the 40th day of the occupation, launched by Bundy and his followers to protest prison terms for two local ranchers on arson charges and federal management of public lands. Bundy was arrested last month as he and other main figures of the occupation were traveling to the town of John Day. Four others were also arrested in that confrontation, which resulted in the shooting death of the group's spokesman, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum. The FBI said Finicum was reaching for a gun. Most of the occupiers fled the refuge after that. Authorities then surrounded the property and later got the holdouts added to an indictment charging 16 people with conspiracy to interfere with federal workers. The four recently posted a series of defiant videos in which Fry shows a defensive perimeter they have built and takes a joyride in a government vehicle. Fry says the FBI told him he faces additional charges because of the barricades. At first, Bundy urged the last holdouts to go home. But in response to the grand jury indictment, he took a more defiant tone from jail. By The Associated Press MailTribune.com By The Associated Press Posted Feb. 10, 2016 at 6:36 PM Updated Feb 10, 2016 at 10:33 PM » Comment or view comments   Reader Reaction »  STAY INFORMED   Email NewsLetter   Sign Up Today   Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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