THE leader of a month-long armed occupation at a wildlife refuge in the United States (U.S.) state of Oregon, Ammon Bundy, has urged remaining supporters to leave the site and go home, a day after his arrest and the killing of his second-in-command.

Bundy was taken into custody with several members of his group following a shooting at a traffic stop involving the FBI on a highway north of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon on Wednesday.

Bundy, 40, urged federal authorities to let his comrades leave the area without being prosecuted.

“To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down… Go home and hug your families,” Bundy said in a statement read by his lawyer, Michael Arnold, following a court hearing.