Shortly after the deadly roadblock confrontation with Oregon standoff spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum in 2016, an FBI Hostage Rescue Team supervisor checked on his agents at the scene: "Guys are you OK? Anybody shoot? Are you guys good?''

The members of the elite tactical squad either nodded or gave the supervisor a thumbs-up.

Except one.

FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita replied, "Dude, you know you can't ask me that right now,'' according to a fellow agent who heard him.

The comment is included in newly released transcripts from hearings before the federal grand jury that indicted Astarita for allegedly lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum moments before state troopers fatally shot him.

While prosecutors have previously recounted in court what FBI agents and supervisors said at the roadblock that Jan. 26, the transcripts provide the first explanation from the agents themselves.

Except for Astarita, the agents are identified only by their initials in the transcripts. They were unsealed after the Oregonian/OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting filed a motion in court seeking disclosure.

Astarita has pleaded not guilty to three counts of making a false statement and two counts of obstruction of justice in U.S. District Court in Portland. His lawyers contend the government's investigation is based on faulty forensic conclusions.

The government alleges that Astarita fired at Finicum as he emerged from his pickup. One bullet went through the truck's roof and the other went astray, investigators said. Finicum was among an armed group that took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters near Burns three weeks earlier.

After Astarita's first remark at the scene, an FBI supervisor with him didn't catch it and asked: "What?''

"'Hey man, you don't got to ask me that Bro,''' Astarita responded, "or 'I'm good Bro, don't ask me that,''' the supervisor testified.

The "wise-guy'' response from Astarita was typical, said the supervisor identified as "I.M." He added that Astarita is "just kind of a flippant guy.'' I.M. hadn't been stationed at the roadblock but arrived soon after the shooting.

Supervisors from the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team had devised the plan to stop and arrest the refuge occupation leaders as they left the bird sanctuary and drove to a community meeting in John Day along U.S. 395. Oregon's FBI Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing approved the plan.

In case the occupiers didn't stop when pulled over, the FBI set up a roadblock on the highway. It was covered by four FBI Hostage Rescue Team operators Astarita, "B.M.,'' "M.F." and "J.N.," and two Oregon State Police officers.

When Finicum drove off from the initial police stop and his truck approached the roadblock, one of the state police officers fired three .223-caliber rounds from his AR-15 rifle, striking the driver side, front hood and radiator grill of Finicum's pickup.

Finicum crashed into a snowbank on the side of the road and stepped out, his hands in the air.

Passenger Shawna Cox's video showed a red small dot on Finicum's left shoulder as he exited the truck. At the same time Finicum yelled, "Go ahead and shoot me,'' two shots can be heard on Cox's video, according to a summary report from the FBI's Shooting Incident Response Team.

Government expert's 3D reconstructions of shooting scene. Indicted FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita, identified as the blue figure, was crouched beside open passenger side door of truck, across from Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum's pickup, prosecutors contend.

The first shot hit the roof of Finicum's truck and a second missed. Deschutes County sheriff's detectives, assigned to investigate what happened, traced the trajectory of the bullet that struck the roof to a spot where Astarita, agent B.M. and one state trooper were standing, according to court documents.

In front of a grand jury, a prosecutor asked B.M. if he heard gunshots when Finicum got out of his truck. B.M. was Astarita's immediate supervisor on the Hostage Rescue Team's blue squad.

"No. I do not recall hearing shots fired at that time,'' B.M. said. He was standing behind Astarita and said he was wearing a noise-dampening headset.

After the shooting, B.M. said he also asked the two Hostage Rescue Team agents who report directly to him, Astarita and J.N., if they had fired their rifles. "They both answered no,'' B.M. said.

Two or three days after the shooting, B.M. said two other FBI supervisory agents informed him there were two rounds unaccounted for at the shooting scene. Supervisory agent I.M. recalled with B.M. the odd response that he got from Astarita when he asked him if he had fired his rifle.

As a result, B.M. again confronted Astarita and asked him about his on-scene quip to I.M.

"And Joe was like, look ... he's like, 'I didn't hear any shots fired.' He said, 'I.M. asked me who shot. And he's like, 'I had no idea who shot. I didn't hear anything so I told him don't ask me,'" B.M recalled to grand jurors.

B.M. testified that Astarita's explanation seemed logical. "Nothing gave me pause,'' he said.

Once T.S., the unit chief of the Hostage Rescue Team's blue squad, learned that Deschutes County investigators suspected the unaccounted rounds came from someone on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, T.S. asked the agents again if they had fired, including Astarita.

"I said, 'Joe, did you shoot on this?' And he said, 'No, I didn't shoot,'" T.S. testified.

In Astarita's initial interview with Oregon State Police Detective Scott Hill on the day of the shooting, Astarita said he saw Finicum's truck almost hit his colleague and friend, J.N. Astarita told the detective that Finicum had clear intentions to run over the officer, was uncooperative and verbally combative, according to Hill's report.

Hill and another state police detective, Trampas Mccrae, reinterviewed the Hostage Rescue Team agents on Feb. 6, 2016, but the agents this time demanded to be questioned as a group and refused to have the interview recorded. They also said they wouldn't answer any questions already asked and had a legal representative on the phone.

In this second interview, B.M. did most of the talking for the group and Astarita was much quieter, according to investigators' reports. The agents also couldn't recall where they were standing at the time Finicum's truck hit the snowbank.

The state police interviewers said they found it odd that agents from the FBI's lead tactical team didn't know what kind of ammunition they shot or the brand or color of the casings. They each carried Rock River Arms AR-15 rifles, which fire .223-caliber ammunition.

"I know I was on our SWAT team for about five years, and you kind of know your weapons and you know your ammunition and you know what you're shooting,'' Hill told an investigator with the Office of the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Justice.

McCrae told the Inspector General's investigator that he and Hill believed that the Hostage Rescue Team members were hiding something and lying, according to a report by Inspector General Special Agent D. Nichole Fleming.

Court records also indicated that shell casings were missing from the scene.

State police reported seeing brass-colored shell casings at the site. After Finicum was shot, FBI aerial surveillance showed unidentified officers searching extensively throughout the area and motioning as if they were picking something off the ground. At various times, they met as a group, before breaking off and resuming either a search or collection of items, according to government documents.

The FBI's Shooting Incident Review Team, called in to investigate the following month, "could not conclusively determine which, or if, HRT operator(s) fired'' based on the aerial FBI footage and Shawna Cox's video, court records show.

Further investigation by the Deschutes sheriff's investigators, joined by Office of the Inspector General and Oregon U.S. Attorney's Office, did pinpoint Astarita as the shooter, court records indicate.

DOCUMENTS:

-Inspector General memo of investigation

-FBI Hostage Rescue Team Special Agent I.M. grand jury testimony

-FBI Hostage Rescue Team Special Agent C.S. grand jury testimony

-FBI Hostage Rescue Team Special Agent B.M. grand jury testimony

-FBI Hostage Rescue Team Special Agent M.F. grand jury testimony

-Government expert exhibits, reconstruction of shooting scene

The Oregonian also did its own animated diagram of the scene that day. Here it is.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian