TyroneSlothrop
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #2,221
Here is what witnesses said:According to the story, for the same reason the Hammonds did...according to eyewitnesses, they deliberately targeted property owners, lit it up, then didn't stay to tend them.
The Many Hypocrisies of the Oregon Standoff
The 2001 fire, a jury found, was set to conceal the illegal slaughter of deer on Bureau of Land Management property. Here is the government account of this incident:
“Witnesses at trial, including a relative of the Hammonds, testified the arson occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his hunting party illegally slaughtered several deer on BLM property. Jurors were told that Steven Hammond handed out ‘Strike Anywhere’ matches with instructions that they be lit and dropped on the ground because they were going to ‘light up the whole country on fire.’ One witness testified that he barely escaped the eight to ten foot high flames caused by the arson. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of the game violations. … Dwight and Steven Hammond told one of their relatives to keep his mouth shut and that nobody needed to know about the fire.”