One of the final holdouts in the 2016 armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon was shot this weekend by Idaho police officers after a confrontation in the town of Ferdinand that followed a high-speed chase.
Sean Anderson, 52, was hospitalized with a wound to the face early Saturday morning following an incident in which a Lewis County sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull him over for a vehicular violation. After a brief stop, Anderson took off at high speed with officers from multiple jurisdictions in pursuit. Upon reaching a residential area near Ferdinand, shots were exchanged and Anderson was wounded.
Idaho State Police announced in a press release that it was investigating the incident. It began when Anderson was pulled over on U.S. Highway 12 for “an apparent equipment violation.” When he suddenly drove off at high speed and entered neighboring Idaho County, he was pursued by officers from the Nez Perce Tribal Police and Idaho County deputies.
At the end of the exchange of gunfire in Ferdinand, the driver was wounded but none of the officers were hurt. The three agencies involved in the incident requested a critical incident investigation, one that will involve the Idaho State Police and the FBI. Lewis County Sheriff Jason Davis told the Lewiston Morning Tribune that his office would decline to comment in order to ensure the integrity and impartiality of the critical incident task force.
Idaho County Sheriff Doug Giddings also declined to offer comment but noted that his deputy was placed on paid administrative leave until the investigation is complete.
Anderson had a brief brush with national notoriety in February 2016 as one of the four final holdouts who remained inside the Malheur reserve buildings after the standoff’s leaders, including Ammon Bundy, had been arrested at a roadblock. During that latter confrontation, another occupier, Robert “Lavoy” Finicum, was shot to death by Oregon State Police.
Anderson and his wife Sandy, who both live in the north-central Idaho town of Riggins, had joined the Malheur occupation earlier; after the roadblock arrests, they became frantic in defending their positions inside the refuge, using construction equipment to build defensive berms and recording increasingly wild-eyed videos for their supporters’ consumption.
In one of those videos, Sean Anderson could be seen urging veterans and others to come rushing to Oregon to help defend them: “Media’s been waiting for a bloodbath this whole time we been here. Now there’s gonna be one, and they’re running! They’re told to run because the feds don’t want people to know who’s murdering us!
“American people better wake up, get here and fight for your country right now. It is on!” he continued. “All those military that’s been fighting for your country overseas, you can fight for your country right here in America! Get here, get some! This is history in the making! […] If they stop you from getting here, kill them!”
The four holdouts eventually surrendered without incident. Sean and Susan Anderson were booked on multiple federal charges—including conspiracy to impede federal workers from carrying out their duties at the refuge through intimidation, threat or force, possession of a firearm in a federal facility and depredation of government property, and removal and destruction of government property—but eventually took a plea bargain in which they only pleaded guilty to trespass, paid $1,000 in restitution, and were released on probation.
During that hearing, Anderson apologized for the video rants, saying he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed” by them now.
At the time, Sheriff Giddings wrote a letter defending Anderson, and told reporters that he believed the couple had committed no crimes—for which he was widely criticized.
“They were radicalized in their thinking,” Giddings told the Tribune. “I know a lot of guys radicalized in their thinking. There's no crime against that, and if you can't speak against your government, whoa, where does that go? And if that's the reason that you're in trouble, that's not acceptable.”