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 The FBI and local law enforcement have set up checkpoints near the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Oregon and are working
"around the clock to empty the refuge of the armed occupiers in the
safest way possible", a statement said.
Eight more people had left the compound by late on Wednesday, the
FBI said, and three were arrested and facing charges of felony
conspiracy to impede federal officers.
It was unclear how many people remained inside the refuge.
The jailed leader of the protest, Ammon Bundy, urged supporters
still occupying the site on Wednesday to head home.
"To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this
fight from here. Please stand down ... Please go home," Bundy said
in a statement read by his attorney following a court hearing.
 Bundy and at least a dozen armed individuals holed up at the refuge
on Jan. 2 in a flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a
decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in
the West.
Law enforcement had kept an eye on the protest from afar until
Tuesday, when Bundy and members of his group were stopped en route
to a speaking event by the FBI and Oregon State Police. Shots were
fired during the incident and a member of Bundy's group was killed,
authorities said.
He was identified by activists as Robert LaVoy Finicum, a rancher
who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers. Bundy's brother, Ryan,
was wounded. Several members were arrested, including the Bundy
brothers.
The protesters were each charged with conspiracy to use force and
intimidation or threats to impede federal officers from discharging
their duties.
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Citing the investigation, authorities declined to say what led to
the fatal shooting but urged the protest members to leave the refuge
peacefully.
"I'm disappointed that a traffic stop yesterday that was supposed to
bring peaceful resolution to this ended badly," Harney County
Sheriff Dave Ward said during a Wednesday press conference.
Jason Patrick, who remained at the refuge following Bundy's arrest,
told Reuters by phone some protesters were leaving through
checkpoints, but he rejected the word "surrender".
Patrick was among the three arrested late Wednesday, according to
the FBI.
Reactions to the takeover from residents in Burns, about 30 miles
(48 km) from the refuge, have included sympathy for two imprisoned
local ranchers whose plight began the protest, to dismay at the
armed occupation by individuals seen as outsiders.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles; Editing by Gareth
Jones)
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