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Gunshot Kills F.B.I. Agent in a Stakeout

Law enforcement officers searched a mobile home park in Branchburg Township, N.J., on Thursday after an F.B.I. agent, Barry Lee Bush, was killed while following three bank-robbery suspects.Credit...Tim Larsen/Associated Press

A veteran F.B.I. agent on a bank-robbery detail was fatally wounded yesterday morning, apparently when another agent’s weapon accidentally discharged during a confrontation with three gunmen outside a bank in a quiet town in central New Jersey, the authorities said.

While the circumstances were still under investigation, a statement by the F.B.I. said that the agent, Barry Lee Bush, 52, of the bureau’s Newark office, “may have been fatally wounded as a result of the accidental discharge of another agent’s weapon during a dynamic arrest situation.”

In the 99-year history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Bush, who was married and the father of two grown children, was the 51st agent killed in the line of duty, and the first to be fatally shot in 10 years. He had worked for the bureau for almost 20 years, in Newark, Kansas City, Mo., and elsewhere.

The events yesterday that led to the agent’s death were part of an extensive federal, state and local task force investigation organized in response to a series of bank robberies this year in Middlesex and Monmouth Counties. Teams, some with shotguns, some in SWAT gear, wearing bullet-resistant vests and armed with assault rifles, have staked out some banks in central New Jersey in recent weeks. The team yesterday was following a group of suspects.

As hundreds of federal, state and local officers swarmed to the scene of the shooting in Readington Township, in Hunterdon County about 50 miles west of New York City, two suspects were reported captured and assault weapons were seized in the late-morning violence. The captured suspects were identified as Wilfredo Berrios, 28, and Michael Cruz, 21, both of New Brunswick, N.J.

But a third suspect, identified as Francisco J. Herrera-Genao, 22, also of New Brunswick, who was said to be armed with a rifle and wearing a sweatshirt and only one shoe, fled into a densely wooded area of horse farms and country clubs and was hunted into the evening by more than 300 troopers and officers with dogs and helicopters.

Roads were closed, schools and businesses were locked down and officers with drawn guns went door to door at homes and farms, advising people to stay inside. The search was to continue all night, officials said.

“There’s a lot of tension, I can tell you,” said Kate Sarles, the police commissioner in neighboring Branchburg Township, where the search was under way last night. “People are coming home and locking themselves in. Obviously the man is desperate.”

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Credit...The New York Times

The shooting took place shortly after 11:30 a.m. near a PNC Bank on Route 22 in the rural township of about 15,000 people, where sensational crimes are rare. Witnesses said the suspects, riding in two vehicles, pulled into the parking lot of a garden supply store across the highway. One remained in his car while two stepped out and began to approach the bank.

A group of federal agents and state troopers who had been following the suspects suddenly swarmed in on the gunmen, who were intercepted before they reached the door of the bank.

Witnesses said they heard three shots, or bursts from automatic weapons, and F.B.I. officials later said that the suspects had not fired their weapons. One official said that Mr. Bush had been shot from behind at close range. He was taken by helicopter to University Hospital in Newark, and while he was alive on arrival doctors were unable to save him, officials said.

Mr. Bush had testified in two high-profile cases, the successful prosecution of terrorists in the 1998 bombing of American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the conviction of James C. Kopp, an anti-abortion activist, in the death of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, an obstetrician.

Explaining yesterday’s events, the F.B.I. said: “Special Agent Bush and his team were in pursuit of heavily armed serial bank robbers who are believed to be responsible for four bank robberies. In two of those robberies, the suspects, armed with assault weapons, fired rounds while inside the bank.”

The previous robberies occurred at a Commerce Bank in Piscataway on Feb. 8 and at three branches of the Bank of America — in East Brunswick on Feb. 16, in Ocean Township on March 2 and in South Brunswick on March 16. Investigators at first believed that only four men were involved, but now say that as many as six to eight may have participated.

The authorities said the robbers in those cases wore ski masks, baseball hats, black gloves, hooded sweatshirts, trench coats and work boots, and carried a big money bag. They were heavily armed and carried additional ammunition. Their weapons were believed to have included a .380-caliber pistol and AK-47 assault weapons with 30-round magazines, officials said.

They also used Hondas that had been stolen the night before each of the robberies. The cars were parked in front of the banks during the robberies, with the engines running and doors open. After the getaways, the robbers switched to other vehicles and abandoned the stolen cars in residential areas or parking lots.

At a news conference late last night, Pedro Ruiz, the acting special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Newark office, said the task force investigators had information that the suspects intended to rob the PNC Bank in Readington Township yesterday and had been following them.

The three suspects, in two cars, drove into the parking lot of Arvins Farm and Garden Center, across Route 22 from the bank, said James Margolin, another F.B.I. spokesman. One remained in his car while the others got out and walked toward the bank, but they were intercepted before they went in, he said.

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Investigators at a PNC Bank in Readington Township, N.J., where Agent Bush was fatally shot.Credit...Tim Larsen/Associated Press

Agent Ruiz said the gunmen had fired no shots in the confrontation, with all the bullets coming from law enforcement officers’ guns.

Witnesses in the bank, including Josh Bavosa, 35, who was making a deposit, said they heard three bursts of gunfire. When they looked out the big plate-glass windows, they said, they saw men lying on the ground. Moments later, they said, a large number of police cars converged on the scene.

Maynor Veliz, 19, was working in the back of the garden center when he heard the shots. He said he looked out and saw one man lying on the ground by a white car with its windows broken. Moments later, he said, he saw a swarm of police officers converge on the scene.

Mr. Berrios and Mr. Cruz were seized there, Agent Ruiz said.

It was unclear how one of the suspects got away. The man, identified as Mr. Herrera-Genao, was last seen carrying a rifle and running into a heavily wooded area behind the bank that lies between two country clubs. The fugitive was described as Hispanic, at least 6 feet tall, wearing a sweatshirt and one shoe. His other shoe was found in the woods near Raritan Valley Community College.

He and the other two suspects were charged yesterday with attempted armed bank robbery, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison, law enforcement officials said. Another man, Efrain Lynn, 21, of New Brunswick, was arrested at another location later and charged with attempted armed bank robbery in connection with the March 16 holdup, the F.B.I. said.

As hundreds of state police troopers and police officers from surrounding communities converged on the scene yesterday, a huge hunt began. The search, coordinated by the state police and using numerous dogs, spread out through a densely wooded area north of Route 22 and south of Interstate 78 between the Fox Hollow Golf Course and the Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club.

At least four helicopters circled the area all afternoon, witnesses said. Route 22, an east-west thoroughfare that cuts across Hunterdon County, was closed in both directions for much of the day in the vicinity of the shooting, as were many secondary roads. Officers with drawn guns went door to door at homes and businesses, advising people to stay inside. They also searched barns and other farm buildings in the area.

Vincent DellaPello, 34, whose family owns a 50-acre horse farm in the area of the search, said the area consisted of dense woods, bounded by pastures and horse farms. “You could get lost in there,” he said.

At the PNC Bank, the doors were locked — with employees and customers inside — for two and a half hours. It was a day of watchful waiting for many people in the area.

“At various times throughout the day, there has been a flood of marked cars, unmarked cars, state troopers, and you can hear the helicopters off and on,” said Penny Brown, 51, who was taking care of her mother at her home on Lamington Road, which was closed. By day’s end, officers were letting people return to their homes.

Reporting was contributed by Kareem Fahim, Richard G. Jones, Tina Kelley, Jennifer 8. Lee, Jonathan Miller, Andy Newman, William K. Rashbaum and Ronald Smothers.

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