Leader of Armed Oregon Standoff Tells Supporters to Go Home

The leader of an armed standoff in Oregon told followers Wednesday to stand down in the wake of the police killing of a protester during a traffic stop.

Ammon Bundy, through a statement from his attorney, asked for an end to the armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, according to CNN. “We need to step back. Somebody died yesterday,” said Bundy’s attorney Mike Arnold. “Mr. Bundy wants everybody to remember that somebody died, and this is not just about him right now.”

Bundy was arrested Tuesday during the same incident that left a man dead, who reports identified as LaVoy Finicum. The group has held the wildlife refuge in Burns, Ore. for weeks to protest federal use of land in the Western United States.

Arnold’s statement came after Harney County Sheriff David Ward gave an emotional speech blaming the group for the death of Finicum. “If it was as simple as just waiting out some folks down there to get out of some building, we could have waiting a lot longer—but this has been tearing our community apart,” Ward said. “It’s time for everybody in this illegal occupation to move on. There doesn’t have to be bloodshed in our community.”