MIAMI — The sun had not come up yet on Tuesday when a group of F.B.I. agents assigned to investigate criminals who prey on children online approached the Water Terrace apartments in Sunrise, Fla., to execute a search warrant, a routine part of the job that is always fraught with risk.
What exactly happened in the ensuing minutes is unknown, but a gun battle broke out, rousting neighbors out of bed in the quiet residential community. Law enforcement officials called emergency dispatchers. Multiple shots fired, they reported. Send air rescue.
Two F.B.I. agents died and three more were injured in one of the deadliest shootings in the bureau’s history. No agent had been shot and killed on duty since 2008.
The man being investigated in the case, which the authorities said involved violent crimes against children, had barricaded himself inside the complex and was found dead. A law enforcement official said it appeared that the man had killed himself before agents were able to arrest him. His identity was not released.
Video footage from local police stations showed a grisly scene at the open-air apartment complex. A SWAT truck had rammed into staircase railings that lay on the ground in tatters. There were blood stains on the floor outside the apartments. The police swarmed to the complex, shutting down the roads and keeping people out for most of the day.
Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, identified the two agents who were killed as Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger.
“Every day, F.B.I. special agents put themselves in harm’s way to keep the American people safe,” Mr. Wray said in a statement. “Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The F.B.I. will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery.”
Ms. Schwartzenberger, 43, was a mother of two from Colorado and had been with the F.B.I. since 2005. She was part of the violent crimes against children squad in the bureau’s Miami field office, court records show. She was assigned to the Innocent Images National Initiative, a part of the F.B.I.’s cybercrimes program established to combat the proliferation of images of child sexual abuse online.
Mr. Alfin, 36, was a father of one from New York and had been a special agent since 2009. He was assigned to the Miami Child Exploitation task force. He discussed his role in an online F.B.I. article about the 2015 arrest of a Naples, Fla., man who ran what the bureau described as the world’s largest child pornography website. The site, called Playpen, had more than 150,000 users around the world.
What exactly happened in the ensuing minutes is unknown, but a gun battle broke out, rousting neighbors out of bed in the quiet residential community. Law enforcement officials called emergency dispatchers. Multiple shots fired, they reported. Send air rescue.
Two F.B.I. agents died and three more were injured in one of the deadliest shootings in the bureau’s history. No agent had been shot and killed on duty since 2008.
The man being investigated in the case, which the authorities said involved violent crimes against children, had barricaded himself inside the complex and was found dead. A law enforcement official said it appeared that the man had killed himself before agents were able to arrest him. His identity was not released.
Video footage from local police stations showed a grisly scene at the open-air apartment complex. A SWAT truck had rammed into staircase railings that lay on the ground in tatters. There were blood stains on the floor outside the apartments. The police swarmed to the complex, shutting down the roads and keeping people out for most of the day.
Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, identified the two agents who were killed as Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger.
“Every day, F.B.I. special agents put themselves in harm’s way to keep the American people safe,” Mr. Wray said in a statement. “Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The F.B.I. will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery.”
Ms. Schwartzenberger, 43, was a mother of two from Colorado and had been with the F.B.I. since 2005. She was part of the violent crimes against children squad in the bureau’s Miami field office, court records show. She was assigned to the Innocent Images National Initiative, a part of the F.B.I.’s cybercrimes program established to combat the proliferation of images of child sexual abuse online.
Mr. Alfin, 36, was a father of one from New York and had been a special agent since 2009. He was assigned to the Miami Child Exploitation task force. He discussed his role in an online F.B.I. article about the 2015 arrest of a Naples, Fla., man who ran what the bureau described as the world’s largest child pornography website. The site, called Playpen, had more than 150,000 users around the world.
