After three weeks of listening to his boss, his fellow Hostage Rescue Team agents and Oregon State Police officers describe his demeanor and actions on Jan. 26, 2016, FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita gave his own account Wednesday.

In a steady voice, he flatly denied several times that he fired his Colt AR-15 rifle that day and said he never picked up any shell casings from the scene.

Astarita, accused of lying to conceal that he fired two shots at the truck of refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, is fighting to hold on to the only job he's ever wanted since he was in eighth grade.

He took the witness stand for a second day in his trial in U.S. District Court in Portland, charged with making false statements and obstruction of justice in the aftermath of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

No one has acknowledged firing the two disputed shots at Finicum when he stepped out of his truck at a roadblock on U.S. 395 in Harney County as the FBI and state police moved to arrest the occupation's leaders. One hit the roof of Finicum's truck and the other missed. Prosecutors and Oregon investigators say Astarita took the shots.

Two state police SWAT officers fatally shot Finicum moments later after he reached into his jacket where he had a loaded handgun.

Of the oath he took to become an FBI agent, Astarita told jurors, "It means everything to me. That's my world. I've dedicated my life to it. That's my character. My honor.''

Astarita was on the stand for three hours in the morning, including the defense playing two FBI aerial videos of the shooting scene.

Astarita said he didn't fire his rifle when Finicum got out of his truck because he was concerned about potential crossfire. He said he didn't know who had shot and killed Finicum that day and didn't hear any of the gunshots fired.

He repeatedly said he couldn't identify any of the officers who were caught on the FBI videos, walking around the shooting scene, scouring the ground and bending under trucks after Finicum was shot and killed. Prosecutors contend those were FBI Hostage Rescue Team agents.

And Astarita confirmed earlier testimony at trial that he wasn't sure what ammunition he had loaded into his rifle, saying he didn't remember which service rounds he was using from a ballistics research facility that provides them to team agents.

He also tried to address other concerns raised during the trial, such as his remark to a supervisor at the scene after Finicum was killed, descriptions by other officers that he was unusually "amped up'' at the scene and that he knocked off the cowboy hat of Ryan Bundy, a passenger in Finicum's truck when Bundy was arrested.

Astarita, 41, is expected to face stiffer questions during his cross-examination in the afternoon.

Astarita had arrived in Burns in early January 2016. He was posted at the roadblock on U.S. 395, about a mile north of where state police and FBI agents planned to stop the occupation leaders traveling in a Jeep and Finicum's truck on their way to a community meeting in John Day.

Astarita said his initial role was to "man the roadblock,'' standing on a small ladder behind the front hood of an FBI rental truck that formed part of a V in the northbound lane. Agent John Neidert was on a ladder behind the hood of the other FBI rental truck in the southbound lane.

Finicum had sped away from the police stop. Astarita said he saw Finicum's truck traveling rapidly toward the roadblock.

He said he got onto the hood of the truck in front of him, tried to get a sight on the driver's side of Finicum's pickup to see if he "could apply effective fire on that driver.'' But he couldn't see inside the cab. Soon, he heard a supervisor command, "Bail out! Bail out! Bail out!''

Astarita got off the ladder, heard somebody say, "Get down! They're shooting!'' and ran to the east side of the road. He saw Neidert run to the west side as Finicum's truck swerved into a snowbank on the west side.

"I saw the truck come through the snow. I saw John disappear,'' he said. "At that point, I thought John was dead.''

Astarita said he immediately started moving to help Neidert. He remembered seeing Neidert's head pop out of the snowbank and saw him shaking off the snow, which he said gave him tremendous relief.

"I began scanning my sector for threats,'' Astarita said. He identified himself on a video image, standing beside the open passenger door of a state police truck facing south in the middle of the road.

"I saw motion on the driver's side and I saw Mr. Finicum was exiting,'' Astarita said, referring to Finicum's truck in the snowbank.

He said he spotted Oregon State Police Officer Joey Pollard in his backdrop and worried about crossfire.

"Did you fire your weapon at that moment?'' defense lawyer Robert Cary asked.

"No, I did not,'' Astarita responded.

"Did you fire your weapon at all that day?'' Cary continued.

"No, I did not,'' Astarita said.

As Finicum walked away further from his truck, Astarita said he tried to get Neidert and himself and his boss, supervisory special agent B.M., behind the state police car for better cover. He recalled seeing Finicum reach with his right hand into his left inner pocket and Finicum "go down.''

"Do you recall hearing any shots at the roadblock that day?'' Cary asked.

"I do not,'' Astarita said.

"Did you see who shot him?'' Cary asked.

"I did not,'' Astarita aid.

The attention of FBI agents and officers at the scene then turned to the passengers still in Finicum's truck, he said. He said he deployed one flash bang at Finicum's truck as a distraction so those still in the truck wouldn't get " a line of sight'' to shoot one of the officers, Astarita said.

Astarita said he gave loud, authoritative commands for the remaining occupants of Fincium's truck to exit with their hands up. He also said he was using loud commands to organize the state SWAT and FBI agents huddled on the driver's side of the state police truck in the middle of the roadblock. They were trying to cover one another in a standard patrol "up/down" technique, he said, describing how they'd take turns popping up and down over the truck to cover the passenger side of Finicum's truck so no one in Finicum's truck could get a shot off at any of them.

Once Ryan Bundy stepped out of Finicum's truck, Astarita recognized his voice on a bystander's video played for jurors, in which he could be heard yelling, "Keep coming'' as Bundy was directed to walk backwards toward officers once he got to the road, out of the snowbank.

Astarita said he noticed Bundy was wearing a gun holster, and he put his hand on it, to make sure it was empty and asked Bundy where the gun was. Bundy didn't answer, he said. Bundy was ordered by state police to lay prone on his stomach in the road. As he did, his cowboy hat fell off on the street, according to Astarita. Bundy was then placed on his knees so officers could handcuff his hands behind his back, the agent said.

"The cowboy hat was in the way so I picked it up in a frisbee style motion, and I tossed it out into the snow,'' Astarita said.

A state police officer previously testified that he couldn't understand why Astarita, unprovoked, had walked up and knocked Bundy's hat off.

Asked why he was seen walking up to Bundy's right side later as Bundy remained kneeling in the street, Astarita said, "I was looking at Mr. Bundy's cuffs.''

Prosecutors attempted to suggest that Astarita walked up to Bundy to inspect whether he had been injured by the gunshot that struck the roof of Finicum's truck, the disputed one in the case.

Asked by Cary if he was aware Bundy had been injured, Astarita said, "I did hear out there that Mr. Bundy had a cut.''

Cary asked Astarita to explain his unusual statement to FBI supervisory Agent Ian McConnell at the scene when McConnell asked if he was OK and had taken any shots. McConnell testified that Astarita responded with a flippant remark, which became a "pet peeve'' of his.

Astarita said he couldn't remember the exact words, but he said something like, "Don't ask me, I don't know.''

"I could tell Ian was a bit confused about my answer,'' Astarita said, and when McConnell asked him if he had shot again, he said he told him he did not.

During much of Wednesday morning, Astarita's lawyer played back the FBI infrared aerial video, which captured officers walking and scouring the scene that night, bending to look under trucks, which the FBI's former special agent in charge Greg Bretzing has testified was concerning.

After stopping several frames, Cary asked Astarita if he could identify the figures. "No I cannot,'' Astarita said, as he stood before the jury, watching the video on a large computer screen beside the witness stand.

"Did you pick up any .308 rounds?'' Cary asked.

"I did not,'' Astarita said.

"Did you pick up any .223 rounds?'' Cary asked.

"I did not,'' the agent said.

After the shooting, Astarita said he did spend some time in an FBI truck with other agents, including Neidert. Asked if he remembered telling a colleague he had saved Neidert, Astarita explained that he was teasing Neidert about the fact he "bailed the wrong way'' and he had to come rescue him. Neidert testified that Astarita never rescued him.

The night of the shooting, Astarita was interviewed by state police detectives, but they didn't ask him whether he had fired his gun, he said.

Astarita confirmed that he later told his immediate boss, agent B.M., that he hadn't shot either. In their 10-person tent back at their tactical operations center a day or two later, he recalled learning later that investigators had concerns about unaccounted-for rounds. He and B.M., Astarita said, separately checked their rifles and magazines "to see if there was any indication we shot.'' They checked their own rifles simultaneously, he said.

Astarita said he placed no restrictions on the second group interview held with state police detectives in February. Prior testimony revealed his boss, agent B.M., did, demanding an unrecorded, group interview, highly unusual in an officer-involved shooting case.

Prosecutors contend Astarita is the only one who could have taken the disputed shots, based on FBI aerial surveillance videos, Astarita's unusual remarks to his superiors after the shooting and forensic analysis tracing the bullet back to his position by the open passenger door of a state police truck parked in the middle of the roadblock.

Astarita's lawyers argued the government's forensic experts erred, and the bullet trajectory cone can't pinpoint one particular shooter, but places Astarita and two others as potential shooters, fingering a state police SWAT officer as the most likely one who fired, considering he shot five other times that day, including two shots killing Finicum.

If convicted, Astarita could face up to 20 years of prison - five years each for each count of making a false statement, and up to 10 years for obstruction of justice.