Rancher Cliven Bundy says he and his son had a brief conversation with government contractors in the Gold Butte area on June 5, but he had nothing to do with shots being fired near the group’s campsite later that night.

In a phone interview Friday afternoon, the embattled Bunkerville rancher said the first he heard about the gunfire was when he read about it in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

He said the newspaper story prompted him to call Las Vegas police first thing Friday morning so he could tell them what he knew.

Bundy said he and his son, Ryan, were hauling hay to some cattle west of the Virgin Mountains at Dudd Spring when they came across an unmarked truck parked on the remote road. He said there was a man and a woman near the vehicle and another woman up the canyon a ways.

“I did question what they were doing there,” Bundy said. “But they were friendly, and I was friendly. I just figured they were camping like they told me.”

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