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Conspiracy / An Analysis of the FBI Video of the Road Block resulting in Lavoy Finicu
« on: February 06, 2016, 11:37:22 AM »
Part 1) An Analysis of the FBI Video of the Road Block resulting in Lavoy Finicum's Death.
Peter Offermann
February 3, 2016
Email Author
This article will take a close look at some of the individual frames of the 26 minute video of this incident which was released by the FBI and OSP (Oregon State Police). It is hoped that this analysis will help clarify some of the issues surrounding this event.
The video supplied has a resolution of 720x480 pixel @ 24bits and has a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
The methodology used for the analysis was to play the video with VLC Media Player which has the ability to step through the video one frame at a time. Each extracted frame becomes a 720x480.png file which can then be manipulated in any image editing program such as Adobe Photo Shop. I mostly used a program called ACDsee Pro 9 for enhancement as it has very good adjustments across 9 bands of light to dark. It also has a very good filter for enhancing micro contrast to bring out small details in an image. This program also allows one to zoom in to any level of detail to get a closer look.
In this document all images are reproduced at their original resolution. Any zooming of frames is from the camera itself. I do insert a few detail zooms in the original images for clarification. I reproduced the images at the original resolution to preserve the most accurate detail. you can further zoom these images on your computer and see far more detail.
Someone knowledgeable with the type of filming equipment used in such situations said the video camera used had a resolution of 96mpx. This is about double the resolution of the better video cameras available to the general public. It is difficult to tell how far away the camera was but I would estimate from the detail in the video and the 96mpx resolution that the camera platform, likely a helicopter, not a drone, was about 1000 to 1500 feet away. Once Lavoy's truck stopped it slowly moved in a counter clockwise direction at about a 60 degree angle up and away from the location.
What I was looking for in the video was three things.
1) Was there any information available in the images on closer review that would help clarify what happened.
2) Was there any indication that the video had been altered or edited to remove information.
3) Many people are confused and wish more information about when exactly the authorities began firing and how many shots they fired.
After reviewing the whole video a number of times a number of questions were raised in my mind about inconsistencies during two time periods. I decided to first concentrate on the few seconds during these periods. They involved about 150 frames which I extracted individually and examined closely after enhancement.
The first period I examined was the period from when Lavoy's truck closely approached the road block till the time the truck stopped in the snow bank.
The story put out by the authorities was that Lavoy tried to bypass the road block to continue on his way. After concentrating on these frames I came to the conclusion this was not the case.
The first image from the video which I present below is of Lavoy's truck while he was first pulled over by the authorities along with the vehicle following him. In the photo he has his foot on the brakes. Notice the lights at the back of the truck. There are 4 brake lights, one at the rear on each side. Another at the back in the top middle of the canopy. The last is at the top center of the back of the cab.

This next frame is from a few seconds later after Lavoy takes his foot off the brake and starts to accelerate away towards where the road block is further ahead.

Notice that the lights at top center rear of the cab and canopy are no longer on. The tailights are still on but more difficult to see. The one on the passenger side is difficult to see at all because of the dirt at the back of the truck.
By viewing the state of these lights one can tell when Lavoy is braking the truck which will become an important issue as he approaches the road block.
Also notice the time stamp in the top left corner which has the date on the top line and hours/minutes/seconds on the line below.
The distance from where Lavoy was stopped to where the road block is located appears to be about 1 mile or slightly less. The time it took Lavoy to cover this distance suggests he was doing about 60 to 70 mph on the straight stretch and from seeing slight tapping of the brakes as he first enters the last curve below he is probably doing 55/60 mph in the curve as shown below.

Notice the topography here. The ground slopes down to the right. The ground to the left of the highway is sloped upwards at what looks to be 35° to 40°. There are also some trees and shrubs close to the road. The curve Lavoy is just entering here gets much sharper just past the top of the picture and because of the topography Lavoy can likely not see the road more than about 200 feet ahead once he is fully into the curve.
The next frame below is from 3 seconds later and the truck brakes are not yet on. Notice he is cutting the corner sharp which further reduces his view of the road ahead. The end of the curve is just out of view at the top of the frame and he is possibly starting to accelerate into the next straight stretch.

The next frame below is about 1 second later (end of second 43 / start of second 45) when he first sees the road block that was until then in a blind spot ahead. This is where he first applies the brakes. The passengers would have seen the trucks before him and this is confirmed in the interview with the lady that was in the truck with him. She says they warned him of vehicles ahead.
I will only include a few frames between now and when the truck comes to a stop in the snow. You can confirm by viewing all the frames that he never takes his foot off the brakes until the last 20 feet of travel in the snow bank when the truck almost rolls over down towards the road. It is up on 2 wheels at a 45° angle. He was probably thrown sideways and his foot slipped off the brake.
Notice the sign on the left circled in red and use it as a reference point in the next few frames, and the still photo taken later from the road block looking back towards where Lavoy came from. This gives a very good indication of how much distance Lavoy had to stop his truck in from approximately 60 mph.

Below... About 1/4 second later Lavoy is directly opposite the sign and the noses of the 3 trucks making up the road block can just be seen at the top pointed out by the red arrow. Lavoy has had about 80 ft to decelerate at this point and he is now about 120 feet from the trucks. He is probably still doing about 50 mph. His brakes are still on.

From the time Lavoy first sees the road block until he is about 40 ft in front of the trucks as shown in the next frame is approximately 2.5 seconds. Do you think you could stop a truck traveling at 60 mph in this distance if you suddenly realized the road is blocked 2.5 seconds ahead? I know I couldn't. He would probably still be doing 30 to 40 mph when he reached the trucks if he stayed on the road.
You can tell how much momentum he still has by how far he traveled through the deep snow with the brakes on. Deep snow is a very good absorber of momentum stopping a vehicle quickly. Imagine what would have happened if he instead hit the vehicles blocking the road. Notice about six idiots standing directly behind and among the trucks. They would have been either maimed or killed along with everyone in the truck.
If Lavoy instead went off the right low side of the road he would have become airborn and likely rolled the truck end over end. He only had a split second to decide what to do. He made the right decision and headed for the uphill bank. This is confirmed because no one was injured in what could have been a very serious collision. Notice his brakes are still on.

Below is a photo taken afterwards looking back towards where Lavoy came from. Notice the sign which was circled in the previous frames. Notice how the trees obscure this site from the road just past the sign. Notice the orange marks on the pavement that likely show where the uphill truck was parked. You can also see where Lavoy's truck entered the snow.

Below you can see the brakes are still on as he enters the snow and the size of the snow spray on the uphill side gives some idea of the significant momentum he still has. The truck travels about 1.5 truck lengths past this spot before stopping.

Below are the last 2 frames in this sequence that first show the truck almost tipped on its side and then at a complete stop after it settles back onto all 4 wheels. The brakes are off at this point. Lavoy was likely thrown to the side and lost his place on the brake pedal.


This road block was installed in an incredibly dangerous fashion almost guaranteeing a serious accident. It appears to me that the intent was an ambush rather than safely stopping all traffic. Where could traffic go if the road block was 100 or 200 ft further back giving vehicles coming out of the curve plenty of room to stop? Such a location would have been just as effective and much safer.
The next frames are very suspicious. Right at the most critical moment when the truck comes to a stop and we need to see what the occupants do, the camera does this for 1.5 seconds (45 frames) while it quickly pans back down the road towards the direction Lavoy came from.

Technically it is easy to create this effect after the fact.

The first clear frame following this again shows the entry of the curve.

The camera then slowly pans upwards towards the the road block. The time stamp says Lavoy's truck is again visible in 3 seconds from when the truck stops but watching the video it appears to take longer. Checking the frame count in this sequence would confirm if extra frames are added.
When Lavoy's truck first becomes visible again the driver's door is already open. I can't see this being the case only 3 seconds after the truck stops. It appears to me some time is missing here. Directly after this is where I find some frames that have strange anomalies.
Notice in the close up of Lavoy's truck, superimposed to the right, that the bottom front of the back door window is missing and also the upright post between the driver and passenger door. The black block is supposed to represent the open driver's door but I would think that the window in the drivers door would not be this dark.
If Lavoy was standing outside on the camera side of the door it would explain the doorpost being obscured but the shadows below the door are light enough to see that there are no feet there.

Peter Offermann
February 3, 2016
Email Author
This article will take a close look at some of the individual frames of the 26 minute video of this incident which was released by the FBI and OSP (Oregon State Police). It is hoped that this analysis will help clarify some of the issues surrounding this event.
The video supplied has a resolution of 720x480 pixel @ 24bits and has a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
The methodology used for the analysis was to play the video with VLC Media Player which has the ability to step through the video one frame at a time. Each extracted frame becomes a 720x480.png file which can then be manipulated in any image editing program such as Adobe Photo Shop. I mostly used a program called ACDsee Pro 9 for enhancement as it has very good adjustments across 9 bands of light to dark. It also has a very good filter for enhancing micro contrast to bring out small details in an image. This program also allows one to zoom in to any level of detail to get a closer look.
In this document all images are reproduced at their original resolution. Any zooming of frames is from the camera itself. I do insert a few detail zooms in the original images for clarification. I reproduced the images at the original resolution to preserve the most accurate detail. you can further zoom these images on your computer and see far more detail.
Someone knowledgeable with the type of filming equipment used in such situations said the video camera used had a resolution of 96mpx. This is about double the resolution of the better video cameras available to the general public. It is difficult to tell how far away the camera was but I would estimate from the detail in the video and the 96mpx resolution that the camera platform, likely a helicopter, not a drone, was about 1000 to 1500 feet away. Once Lavoy's truck stopped it slowly moved in a counter clockwise direction at about a 60 degree angle up and away from the location.
What I was looking for in the video was three things.
1) Was there any information available in the images on closer review that would help clarify what happened.
2) Was there any indication that the video had been altered or edited to remove information.
3) Many people are confused and wish more information about when exactly the authorities began firing and how many shots they fired.
After reviewing the whole video a number of times a number of questions were raised in my mind about inconsistencies during two time periods. I decided to first concentrate on the few seconds during these periods. They involved about 150 frames which I extracted individually and examined closely after enhancement.
The first period I examined was the period from when Lavoy's truck closely approached the road block till the time the truck stopped in the snow bank.
The story put out by the authorities was that Lavoy tried to bypass the road block to continue on his way. After concentrating on these frames I came to the conclusion this was not the case.
The first image from the video which I present below is of Lavoy's truck while he was first pulled over by the authorities along with the vehicle following him. In the photo he has his foot on the brakes. Notice the lights at the back of the truck. There are 4 brake lights, one at the rear on each side. Another at the back in the top middle of the canopy. The last is at the top center of the back of the cab.

This next frame is from a few seconds later after Lavoy takes his foot off the brake and starts to accelerate away towards where the road block is further ahead.

Notice that the lights at top center rear of the cab and canopy are no longer on. The tailights are still on but more difficult to see. The one on the passenger side is difficult to see at all because of the dirt at the back of the truck.
By viewing the state of these lights one can tell when Lavoy is braking the truck which will become an important issue as he approaches the road block.
Also notice the time stamp in the top left corner which has the date on the top line and hours/minutes/seconds on the line below.
The distance from where Lavoy was stopped to where the road block is located appears to be about 1 mile or slightly less. The time it took Lavoy to cover this distance suggests he was doing about 60 to 70 mph on the straight stretch and from seeing slight tapping of the brakes as he first enters the last curve below he is probably doing 55/60 mph in the curve as shown below.

Notice the topography here. The ground slopes down to the right. The ground to the left of the highway is sloped upwards at what looks to be 35° to 40°. There are also some trees and shrubs close to the road. The curve Lavoy is just entering here gets much sharper just past the top of the picture and because of the topography Lavoy can likely not see the road more than about 200 feet ahead once he is fully into the curve.
The next frame below is from 3 seconds later and the truck brakes are not yet on. Notice he is cutting the corner sharp which further reduces his view of the road ahead. The end of the curve is just out of view at the top of the frame and he is possibly starting to accelerate into the next straight stretch.

The next frame below is about 1 second later (end of second 43 / start of second 45) when he first sees the road block that was until then in a blind spot ahead. This is where he first applies the brakes. The passengers would have seen the trucks before him and this is confirmed in the interview with the lady that was in the truck with him. She says they warned him of vehicles ahead.
I will only include a few frames between now and when the truck comes to a stop in the snow. You can confirm by viewing all the frames that he never takes his foot off the brakes until the last 20 feet of travel in the snow bank when the truck almost rolls over down towards the road. It is up on 2 wheels at a 45° angle. He was probably thrown sideways and his foot slipped off the brake.
Notice the sign on the left circled in red and use it as a reference point in the next few frames, and the still photo taken later from the road block looking back towards where Lavoy came from. This gives a very good indication of how much distance Lavoy had to stop his truck in from approximately 60 mph.

Below... About 1/4 second later Lavoy is directly opposite the sign and the noses of the 3 trucks making up the road block can just be seen at the top pointed out by the red arrow. Lavoy has had about 80 ft to decelerate at this point and he is now about 120 feet from the trucks. He is probably still doing about 50 mph. His brakes are still on.

From the time Lavoy first sees the road block until he is about 40 ft in front of the trucks as shown in the next frame is approximately 2.5 seconds. Do you think you could stop a truck traveling at 60 mph in this distance if you suddenly realized the road is blocked 2.5 seconds ahead? I know I couldn't. He would probably still be doing 30 to 40 mph when he reached the trucks if he stayed on the road.
You can tell how much momentum he still has by how far he traveled through the deep snow with the brakes on. Deep snow is a very good absorber of momentum stopping a vehicle quickly. Imagine what would have happened if he instead hit the vehicles blocking the road. Notice about six idiots standing directly behind and among the trucks. They would have been either maimed or killed along with everyone in the truck.
If Lavoy instead went off the right low side of the road he would have become airborn and likely rolled the truck end over end. He only had a split second to decide what to do. He made the right decision and headed for the uphill bank. This is confirmed because no one was injured in what could have been a very serious collision. Notice his brakes are still on.

Below is a photo taken afterwards looking back towards where Lavoy came from. Notice the sign which was circled in the previous frames. Notice how the trees obscure this site from the road just past the sign. Notice the orange marks on the pavement that likely show where the uphill truck was parked. You can also see where Lavoy's truck entered the snow.

Below you can see the brakes are still on as he enters the snow and the size of the snow spray on the uphill side gives some idea of the significant momentum he still has. The truck travels about 1.5 truck lengths past this spot before stopping.

Below are the last 2 frames in this sequence that first show the truck almost tipped on its side and then at a complete stop after it settles back onto all 4 wheels. The brakes are off at this point. Lavoy was likely thrown to the side and lost his place on the brake pedal.


This road block was installed in an incredibly dangerous fashion almost guaranteeing a serious accident. It appears to me that the intent was an ambush rather than safely stopping all traffic. Where could traffic go if the road block was 100 or 200 ft further back giving vehicles coming out of the curve plenty of room to stop? Such a location would have been just as effective and much safer.
The next frames are very suspicious. Right at the most critical moment when the truck comes to a stop and we need to see what the occupants do, the camera does this for 1.5 seconds (45 frames) while it quickly pans back down the road towards the direction Lavoy came from.

Technically it is easy to create this effect after the fact.

The first clear frame following this again shows the entry of the curve.

The camera then slowly pans upwards towards the the road block. The time stamp says Lavoy's truck is again visible in 3 seconds from when the truck stops but watching the video it appears to take longer. Checking the frame count in this sequence would confirm if extra frames are added.
When Lavoy's truck first becomes visible again the driver's door is already open. I can't see this being the case only 3 seconds after the truck stops. It appears to me some time is missing here. Directly after this is where I find some frames that have strange anomalies.
Notice in the close up of Lavoy's truck, superimposed to the right, that the bottom front of the back door window is missing and also the upright post between the driver and passenger door. The black block is supposed to represent the open driver's door but I would think that the window in the drivers door would not be this dark.
If Lavoy was standing outside on the camera side of the door it would explain the doorpost being obscured but the shadows below the door are light enough to see that there are no feet there.
