Request 2) An Analysis of the FBI Video of the Road Block resulting in Lavoy Finicum’s Death.

Peter Offermann
Contact Author
February 25, 2016

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I keep being amazed at what continues to be found as I dig deeper into this video. In preparing material to look closely at the uphill shooter, I discovered more anomalies during the period Lavoy is getting out of the truck that give much credence to the statements that Lavoy was on his knees shortly after exiting the truck. The place this appeared to happen is at the point that Lavoy stops moving directly up the hill from the truck and instead turns to the left and heads towards the back of the truck.

One reason that Lavoy may involuntarily have ended up on his knees is if someone shot him from the back so I re-examined what happened around the road block vehicles to see if there was a shooter in a position to possibly do that. In part 8b we examined the motions of agent #3 who moved from the back of the center blockade truck to the front directly after Lavoy turns. He is painted out to be nearly invisible until he gets to the front door and is then made to look like he just stepped out from behind the door instead of coming from the back of the truck.

From the time the camera comes out of the big blur and focuses on Lavoy’s truck after it stops to this point is not quite 7 seconds. During that period agent #3 is not visible in the video. He is also not seen entering that area so the only place he could be invisible is directly behind that truck.

I started to examine that area closely and throughout that 7 second period there are glaring signs of manipulation at the back edge of the truck.

Below are examples of the doctoring. If someone was standing in this position the lower portion of their body would blend into the back of the truck. If you wanted to hide that person you would need to copy and paste bare pavement and the straight edge of the back of the truck. You would also want to hide as much as possible that someone was in that area at all which gives another reason why they painted out agent #3 in the gif sequence above which occurs timewise directly after this. The agent could also easily be painted out by putting blank pavement over top of him if he moved further away from the back of the truck to get a better sight line. Pavement sections do appear to move around in this section.

The redline shows that a shooter in that position would have line of sight of Lavoy’s back over the hood of the truck. Such a shot, of penetrating capability or just a bean bag would likely knock Lavoy to his knees. It would also explain why Lavoy turned left while staying low as the cab and canopy of the truck would shield him from that shooter by spoiling his line of sight.

All the frames of this truck have the back doctored until agent #3 is moving towards the front of the truck. The first image below is an un-doctored frame from after  the agent starts moving. Notice how the roadway yellow line flows logically into the truck and the detail is similar all over the truck. (Click on the image to see a larger version)

Below is an example of what the doctored frames look like. Notice how the canopy is offset from the rest of truck and that the yellow line runs into where the truck body should be. Notice how the yellow line has a color cast close to the truck?

 

In part 5 we had a look at Lavoy’s footsteps as he left the truck. The lower half of his body and legs were doctored here but parts of his legs are original. notice step 4 where the video shows Lavoy’s left leg raised as he swivels to the left. I don’t think that swivel is physically possible in deep heavy snow without wrenching your knee. This could instead be a slightly doctored version of Lavoy kneeling. (Click on the image below to see a larger version)

Below is one of the enhanced photos I created of the footprints in the snow in that area. The frame is from before anyone but Lavoy was in that area. The second person has not yet exited the truck. As I mentioned earlier in the analysis there is one set of footprints from before, probably from the uphill shooter getting into position before Lavoy’s truck arrives. They head directly up the hill about 6 to 8 feet further towards the back of the truck from Lavoy appears to be kneeling. I have taken them out again here for clarity.

There is no way the video sequence referenced in the stills above with Lavoy moving forward continuously with his legs close together could result in the marks in the snow as shown below. The image below is from further to the passenger side than the image below it and is not showing the set of footsteps closest to the truck.  (Click on the image below to see a larger version)

The possibility I see is that Lavoy is standing there with his arms up and legs spread. He is shot from the rear and drops to his knees in the knee prints. He manages to get his left hand, or both hands down into the highest hand print, and possibly another not showing, in time to stop himself from doing a face plant.

When Lavoy decides to move he swivels his left knee back to the small mark behind the left knee print. He also moves his left hand back to the second hand print to act as a leaver as he gets up and starts moving to the left. His first step or two may be over marks he has already made.  IE…. Probably right foot first into left knee print then left foot forward into to hand print. That would make a left / right gait that matches the rest of his footprints forward to where he is shot.

(Click on the image below to see a larger version)

 

The Uphill Shooter…..

It’s been a long day. I will just put up an enhanced gif for people to review and then continue on tomorrow. The gif is running at 5 fps or 1/6th normal speed.

I got an automatic video stabilization program today so this gif is much better stabilized. I also ran some micro contrast and light eq filters on it and doubled the size.I’ve looked at it many times and after looking at weapons on the internet finally decided he is using a hand gun. I don’t believe he is using a tazer as I don’t think they have the punch to knock him over backwards.

It looks to me that they masked the shooters gun arm with a semi-transparent blur through much of the sequence to make it harder to see what is going on.

The gif is 26mb and will take awhile to load on slow connections.

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