Last I heard they encountered a roadblock and tried to evade it. They crashed, some charged the feds.
According to the feds, they were pulled over at a traffic stop and told to surrender. Most of them did.
According to Ammon Bundy, he was already in the back of a police car when he saw the dead guy raise his hands over his head in surrender, when they shot him in the face. At least, that's what some patriots are saying his wife says he texted to her from the back of the police car. Some of the patriotic websites are calling these third-hand accounts 'eyewitness' accounts of 'the murder.'
So, the guy who said he'd rather die than go to prison either lied about his statement and was surrendering when they killed him, or Ammon Bundy may not have had the best view of what was going on as they tried to get the last guy out of the car.
Seems odd that if they were intending to MURDER these patriots for daring to stand up for their rights, that the feds only killed one guy. You'd think they could arrange an effective escape attempt and shoot them all.