LAS VEGAS — A federal agent testified Wednesday that he saw a “sniper” behind a concrete barrier on a freeway overpass pointing a military-style weapon at him while a crowd of protesters in a dry river bed called for the government to release Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle in April 2014.
Bureau of Land Management Special Agent Michael Johnson told a U.S. District Court jury hearing a third day of evidence in Las Vegas that he’ll never forget the feeling of fear, and that that he “absolutely” felt his life was in danger.
“There was a man with binoculars right next to him. He would periodically pop up,” Johnson said, adding that he also saw the man he termed a “spotter” using a monocular range-finder to judge the distance between them.
Johnson testified he took cover for more than an hour behind a portable generator trailer, and never raised his handgun or AR-15 rifle at the overpass or at unarmed men, women and children in the wash below.