UPDATED Jan. 31 with correct age of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum.

BURNS - Jason Patrick, a former roofer from Georgia, finds himself the leader of the remaining occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

He said Wednesday that he isn't sure how the occupation, now in its 26th day, will end, but he still hopes for a peaceful resolution.

Police have cut off the refuge headquarters, 30 miles southeast of Burns. Roadblocks near the bird sanctuary's entrance stop traffic going in, but police have encouraged anyone at the refuge to leave.

About six miles away, police set up a secondary roadblock, threatening to arrest anyone but landowners who try to go past.

Patrick leads an ever-dwindling band of anti-government occupiers. He wouldn't say how many remain, but other supporters reported about 10 occupiers are still inside.

FBI and state police arrested the top leaders Tuesday along a highway north of Burns as they traveled to a community meeting two hours away in John Day.

A steady trickle of occupiers has taken up police on the offer to leave, including one of the other last remaining leaders, Blaine Cooper.

Patrick said people in the compound met overnight to vote on whether to abandon the refuge or stay.

"The majority vote was to stay," Patrick said.

Leaders with several groups following the occupation called on their members not to head to the refuge.

"During this time, cooler heads must prevail," said a joint statement by the Pacific Patriots Network, Oathkeepers and III%. "We do not wish to inflame the current situation and will engage in open dialogue until all of the facts have been gathered."

The group wants people to wait until its leaders have had time to communicate with federal officials and complete a timeline of what happened.

From the compound, Patrick said he spent time on the phone last night with "Chris," the FBI negotiator who daily talked with Ammon Bundy, who until Tuesday oversaw the occupation.

Patrick said he asserted what Bundy had - that government officials need to address the group's "redress of grievances" outlining complaints about government conduct and the prosecution of local rancher Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven.

The two were convicted on federal arson charges and returned to federal prison earlier this month. Patrick said he also pressed the FBI negotiator on the group's long-standing point that the federal government was violating a constitutional restriction on how much land it can control.

He said the FBI negotiator wouldn't address the points, telling Patrick that everyone had to leave the refuge.

"I told him that sounded like an ultimatum and asked if it was," Patrick said. But he didn't get an answer, he said.

Meantime, a black helicopter and several armored vehicles were stationed at the Burns Municipal Airport, about five miles east of town. Police in paramilitary gear and carrying scoped rifles were patrolling the airport entrance. The airport is serving as an operations base for the FBI.

Any resolution of the occupation needs to include transparency about the shooting death of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, 54, Patrick said. Finicum was killed in a confrontation with police Tuesday about 20 miles north of Burns on U.S. 395, where Bundy, his brother, Ryan Bundy, and three others were arrested. Three others were arrested later.

Social media claims began circulating almost immediately that Finicum was shot while he had his hands raised in surrender. A later witness, one of the Bundy drivers, said on a Facebook video that didn't happen.

Patrick said he wants police to release their video of the encounter.

"I don't really know" what the next step will be, he said. He couldn't leave the refuge if he wanted because all those who have provided him transportation are gone or in jail, he said.

He said he expected a calm day, with people "meandering" about the refuge compound, a collection of buildings that include a bunkhouse and museum.

Lookouts remain posted in the fire tower standing over the compound, with a Hermiston cowboy still there with his horse and big U.S. flag.

Patrick texted and talked by phone with his children.

"They want me to do what's right," he said.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, whose district includes Harney County, urged people left at the refuge "to go home before anyone else gets hurt."

"And when this is done and the cameras' glare turns away from rural Oregon, the healing process will be a long one," Walden said in a statement.

As daylight came, Oregon 205 leading from Burns to the refuge was blockaded about a mile south of the turnout onto Sodhouse Lane, the main entry point to the sanctuary's headquarters.

Law enforcement officials stood with a state trooper vehicle and several unmarked rigs parked nearby. Ranch trucks occasionally drove by, but the few reporters outside the blockade were told no one was being let in.

Wes Land, a ranch hand in Burns, waited from his pickup along the highway for the chance to go to work.



Land's boss, Diamond rancher Buck Taylor, runs cattle on property directly next to the refuge. He was headed there to do his morning chores when officers at the roadblock turned him away.



"I got to go out and feed cows," Land said from the driver's seat as he awaited word along with is border collie, Jack. "I just want to go down and do what I'm supposed to be doing, but they just keep telling me the road's closed."

-- Kelly House of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this post.

-- Les Zaitz

CORRECTION: Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was 54 at the time of his death. An earlier version of this post listed an incorrect age.