By DAVID PORTER, Associated Press Writer
45 minutes ago
READINGTON, N.J. - An FBI agent who was killed Thursday in a
shootout with three bank robbery suspects might have been shot
accidentally by another agent on his stakeout team, the FBI
said.
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Agent Barry Lee Bush, 52, assigned to the Newark office, died after
agents confronted three men suspected in a series of armed bank
robberies.
"Preliminarily, information suggests the agent may have been
fatally wounded as a result of the accidental discharge of another
agent's weapon during a dynamic arrest situation," the FBI said in
a statement Thursday night.
Bush and his team were tracking a group of men believed to be
responsible for four robberies, the FBI said. In two of the
robberies, the suspects had fired assault weapons while inside the
bank, the agency said.
When the agents found three suspects outside a bank on Route 22 in
Readington around noon Thursday, a shootout ensued and Bush was
hit.
Josh Bavosa, 35, said he was making a business deposit at the PNC
Bank when heard three gunfire bursts that sounded as if they were
from an automatic weapon.
When he looked out the window, Bavosa said, he saw law enforcers
swarming around a car, pulling two people out and ordering them
onto the ground.
Brian Agans, who works in an engine shop across from the bank, said
he heard a "pop, pop, pop." He ran outside to make sure a mechanic
wasn't having a problem with equipment, but instead saw law
enforcement swarming.
"All hell was breaking loose. I've never seen so many police and
authorities take action ever in my life," Agans said.
Two suspects, Wilfredo Berrios, 28, and Michael Cruz, 21, both of
New Brunswick, were captured, officials said. State and local
authorities were searching for another man who ran into the woods,
identified by state police as Francisco Herrera-Genao, 22, of New
Brunswick.
Berrios and Cruz were to be charged wtih attempted armed robbery of
the Readington bank, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark
said.
It was not immediately clear if the men had attorneys.
The FBI had started investigating Berrios, Cruz and Herrera-Genao
after a March 2 bank robbery. A surveillance camera at a shopping
center caught the masked gunmen abandoning a stolen car they had
used in the robbery and getting into their "switch car," a rental
vehicle that was traced to Berrios, according to a criminal
complaint released by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The FBI started watching the men, and on Thursday found them
driving up to the bank in Readington in two cars that had been
stolen earlier in the day.
Believing the men were preparing to rob the bank, FBI agents
approached one of the cars and arrested Berrios; Herrera-Genao fled
into the woods. At the same time, shots were fired as agents
approached Cruz, who was in another car, and that was when Bush was
hit, the complaint said.
After his arrest, Cruz admitted the men were attempting to rob the
bank, according to the complaint. He also said they had robbed a
bank along with Efrain Lynn, 21, on March 16. Lynn was arrested
Thursday on a bench warrant unrelated to the bank robberies,
federal prosecutors said.
Bush, 52, joined the FBI in August of 1987, serving in Kansas City
and transferring to Newark in 1991. He is survived by a wife and
two grown children, the FBI said.
Giovanni Finazzo, owner of Mangia Bella, a nearby pizzeria, said
that other
than a string of break-ins several years ago, there is not much
crime in the area.
"Are you kidding?" Finazzo asked. "After 7 o'clock, you don't even
see a ghost in this town."
___
Associated Press writers Angela Delli Santi, Tom Hester Jr. and
Chris Newmarker in Trenton, and Jeffrey Gold in Newark contributed
to this report.
adapted fromhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070406/ap_on_re_us/agent_shot
I send my deepest and heartfelt condolences to this FBI
agent.
Salute.
