BURNS - And then there were four.
After a series of arrests and voluntary departures, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was left in the hands of just four people Thursday night.
The live-streams that had colorfully documented the earlier days of the nearly monthlong occupation petered out.
As occupiers stopped answering calls from the outside, they apparently kept up negotiations over the terms of their departure.
Talks with the FBI were continuing "around the clock," said Greg Bretzing, the special agent in charge in Portland.
Nine people had left the refuge since law enforcement set up checkpoints surrounding the bird sanctuary, he said. The FBI released six.
Three people were arrested - including Jason Patrick, a Georgia roofer who had inherited the loose mantle of leadership following the arrest Tuesday of the occupation's key planners, Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne.
Occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was killed in the traffic stop as Bundy, Payne and three others were arrested. They were on their way to a community meeting in John Day, about 70 miles away through forested canyon where the FBI stood waiting.
Sandy Anderson
Among the four left at the refuge was Sandy Anderson, a 48-year-old former barber/cosmetologist who recently moved to Idaho from Wisconsin.
She and the last three holdouts wanted the same deal offered to others who had been inside the refuge the night the top leaders were arrested, she said in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting.
"Prison isn't an option," Anderson told OPB, "but I would hope that the FBI would consider what we've been asking. It was the same offer given to everybody the night LaVoy was killed, the same offer that we were unaware of. We had no communications at all."
Sean Anderson
Anderson and the others want to be able to leave without anyone getting arrested. The others who remain inside are Anderson's husband, Sean Anderson, 47; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and David Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio, whose live-stream has been staple viewing for fellow patriot-movement sympathizers, the media and police.
Fry said in his video feed posted early Thursday that the group was willing to leave but had been told that Sean Anderson would be arrested on a felony warrant.
Officials from the U.S. Marshals Service wouldn't comment on whether there was an outstanding warrant for Anderson's arrest, and the FBI didn't respond to a request for information.
But court records show Anderson has an extensive history of criminal convictions in Wisconsin.
He has an outstanding bench warrant related to an August 2014 arrest. Anderson was charged with resisting an officer, possession of THC and possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors.
Wisconsin court records show Anderson was convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct in 1998, 2008 and 2009. He was convicted of criminal trespassing in 2002.
The court documents and Anderson's Facebook page indicate he lives in Janesville, Wisconsin. Anderson wears a vest with a patch from Wisconsin III%, a patriot group, in his Facebook photo. Field & Stream magazine reported that Anderson and his wife recently moved to Riggins, Idaho.
Anderson owns Hurricane Outdoor Supply, which lists a Riggins address on Facebook. The company sells camping, hiking, hunting, survival and tactical gear.
Anderson has posted prolifically to Facebook. At 3:14 a.m. Wednesday, he wrote: "My last words ..... Woop woop." It appeared to be a reference to losing cellphone service.
In Fry's live-stream video, Anderson yelled, "They're going to murder all of us," referring to the FBI and other officers who began surrounding the refuge.
"American people better wake up and get here and fight for your country right now, it is on," he said. "If they stop you from getting here, kill them."
Anderson appeared in a video Fry posted Thursday morning that was called "Update: Maybe Last Dance? Husband and Wife."
He and his wife danced slowly to "Tangled Up in You," a song by Staind blasting out of the door of a nearby pickup, with an American flag on a pole laid up against the side.
Both Andersons are dressed in camo gear, Sean Anderson with a small copy of the Constitution tucked in his chest pocket. Cases of water and beer rested near their feet, surrounded in sagebrush. Another American flag was wedged among rocks nearby.
After the dance, Sean Anderson turned to the camera, sniffling. "We want to live," he said.
"We're free Americans," he said. "This isn't Nazi Germany. We don't need checkpoints. We don't need felony charges."
Anderson said he and the others were simply camping in the desert, hurting no one.
The holdouts' families, however, are concerned that their loved ones may get hurt.
David Fry
Fry has mentioned "suicide by cop" to his grandfather in the past.
"This thing has me about nuts," said William Fry Sr., from his home near Cincinnati, Ohio. "But he's 27? What are you going to say?"
Banta's family members want him home not only because they're concerned for his life, but because another family member was dying, not expected to live through the day.
Banta arrived at the refuge only Monday, a relative said. The family is upset because he stopped responding to calls and texts.
On the outside, anger and fear mounted among supporters of the occupiers' cause.
The FBI released video footage of Finicum's death, and speculation about whether the FBI had ambushed the two-car convoy on the way to John Day grew louder.
"It was like they were stalking prey," said Joseph Rice, a member of Pacific Patriots Network, a coalition of patriot groups from around the Northwest.
"Here in America if you put your arms down or give the appearance of putting your arms down, they think that makes it OK for them to shoot you," Rice said. "I don't know what you would call that other than an ambush. I would call that a militarized state."
The Pacific Patriot Network put out a call early Thursday for supporters to flood into Burns to tell the FBI to leave.
Plans began to come together for a protest in Burns over the weekend and protests in Eugene on Monday.
Rice hoped to draw attention to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken's resentencing of the Burns-area ranchers whose legal fight drew the patriot movement's collective eyes to Harney County.
Rice also wanted to highlight Gov. Kate Brown's decision not to send a mediator to Burns as the Pacific Patriot Network requested.
About 200 people were expected to come to Burns over the weekend, Rice said.
He anticipated the protests would be peaceful and said troublemakers would be sent away.
"You can't ensure anything," he said.
-- Carli Brosseau, Laura Gunderson, Mark Graves, Dave Killen and Lynne Palombo of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
-- Les Zaitz
