FBI Agent Slain In Drug Raid

(CBS/AP)  A former Baltimore police officer who had been an FBI agent for less than two years was shot and killed Wednesday while serving a warrant at a home near Pittsburgh, and an alleged cocaine dealer who lived there was taken into custody.

Special Agent Samuel Hicks, who was taking part in a drug-ring roundup, was shot around 6 a.m. in Indiana Township, a middle-class community about 10 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The home's owner, Robert Korbe, was in federal custody in connection with the shooting, said a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.

Hicks, 33, had been with the FBI since March 2007, and was assigned to the Pittsburgh office in August 2007, said Michael Rodriguez, special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh FBI office. A former Baltimore police officer and school teacher, Hicks graduated from Southmoreland High School in Alverton and from the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown with a degree in chemistry in 1999. He leaves behind a wife, Brooke, and a 3-year-old son.

"Special Agent Hicks made the ultimate sacrifice that any law enforcement officer makes for his country," Rodriguez said in a statement read to reporters. "He served with honor and bravery and will be greatly missed by his colleagues here in Pittsburgh and throughout the FBI."

Korbe was expected to appear in federal court later Wednesday. He was one of 35 people charged in a 27-count drug-trafficking indictment unsealed Wednesday. The indictment accuses the defendants of conspiring to traffic cocaine and crack from October 2007 through September.

At the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh, public defenders were in a courtroom Wednesday morning awaiting the arrival of those rounded up in the drug sweep.

A woman who answered the phone at Hicks' home said Brooke Hicks was not taking calls.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said: "The loss of Sam Hicks is a tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Sam's family and the members of the Pittsburgh field office."

Korbe, 39, has a criminal record. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to several drug charges and a firearms count and was given probation, according to online court records.

In May, he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and drug counts, according to online court documents. Sumner Parker, Korbe's attorney in that pending case, did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press.

The home, a cream-colored house that backs up to fields and woods, is owned by Korbe, according to online county records. A child's basketball net and play fort could be seen in the backyard. Authorities remained on the scene Wednesday morning, blocking the street to the public. Several police cars, including unmarked cars, lined the street.

No one answered the door at the home of Korbe's parents, about a half mile away. On the front door, a small magnetic red, white and blue flag sticker read "Honor America's fallen officers."

A neighbor, retired chemistry teacher Gregg Caldwell, said he believed Korbe was in the car-detailing business. Korbe had two children of his own, Caldwell said.

"He seemed like a pretty good kid," Caldwell said. "It's just not something we see going on here in Indiana Township."

Emergency dispatchers had initially said the victim was a police officer shot in a home invasion.

CBS station KDKA reports that Hicks is the only FBI agent assigned to the Pittsburgh office who has died in the line of duty there. Only 34 agents have died in hostile situations in the 100-year-history of the agency, KDKA reports.

The last FBI special agent killed in the line of duty was Barry Lee Bush, who was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow agent outside a bank on April 5, 2007, in Readington, N.J., according to the FBI. Bush, 52, of Forks Township, Pa., and other agents were in pursuit of three bank robbers who were armed but did not fire their weapons, authorities said.

[fortuenti]

``The risk to sell drugs needs to be greater. Penalties need to be stiffer and community action needs to step up to the plate and support our law enforcement. Until these things happen, the cycle of selling drugs and drug abuse will continue...''''

Posted by indepthlook at 04:05 PM : Nov 19, 2008
= = = = = = =

Don''t you remember back in the 1980s, when Reagan escalated Nixon''s War on Drugs, the Republicans promising a "drug-free America by 1995?" Yeah, RIGHT!

All we have to show for it is US being "World''s #1 Jailer" amidst ever-rising deficits.

The War on Drugs ONLY benefits the prison industry, drug cartels, street gangs, and -of course- the CIA. "God bless America?" Yeah, RIGHT!

[fortuenti]

Drug Prohibition was initially devised by WHITE-POWER racists as a tool to persecute non-whites.
[google keywords: "basic facts about the war on drugs"]
Never forget that through MOST of its history, the US was a White-Supremacist, Racist nation!

The War on Drugs facilitates persecution of ALL RACES because Americans need scapegoats and the government craves POWER and The Constitution gets in the way but, with the drug war, they''ve USURPED POWER and have skirted The Constitution--the VERY same people who are sworn to uphold it. "God bless America?" Yeah, RIGHT.

[truthrocks]

This officer was an armed and well-trained law enforcement agent who was killed by another armed man. Guns are designed to kill people not to save them. That''s why we have 30,000 gun deaths and just 250 lives saved with guns.

[truthrocks]

legacyABQ said "Legalize drugs: end the killings: end the cartels: end the crime:"

But we legalized guns and we have 30,000 gun deaths, a lot of illegal gun dealers, and 1.7 million gun crimes. Are you sure legalizing drugs will be different?

[slave4mzpatt]

This war on drugs has been going on for what? 80 years. want to put the black market out of business then legaize drugs!

[rhs648]

Lets concentrate on real news. CBS you call this news? Lets move on please.

Posted by thisisfunny

In 1955 a young man planted a bomb in his mother''s suitcase to collect her life insurance. Fourty-four people, including an infant were killed when the plane exploded from the bomb. When asked how he could do this, he replied that these people had to die sooner or later.

This sounds like you. Like this young guy with the bomb in his mother''s suitcase, you can''t be a very nice person. You lack compassion and should seek help.

[yongamerica]

Another cop playing hero. The real world is nothing like the movies.

RIP special agent.

[legacyabq]

another death in the war on drugs. just make it all legal so drug dealers cant profit from selling the ***. Gov tax''''''''s it, and sells it.

Posted by Joethedumber at 04:35 PM : Nov 19, 2008

Does that include Meth??


Of course; it''s a drug isnt it??

Dont beleive the hype man, every decade they have a new scapegoat drug.
PCP, then LSD, then heroin, then crack, then heroin and oxycontin, now it''s meth..
Its propaganda, most cases presented are FAR from typical, but they want you to believe all this BS..
And it IS b.s.

Legalize drugs: end the killings: end the cartels: end the profits: end the crime: end the over-armed cops: end the paranoia and the SCARED SOCIETY that is CONSTANTLY lied to...

Make war on the "WAR ON.." craze
End the madness, let america breathe for a change!!

[notfooled]

Hey CBS, why aren''t you running the story of Cheney being indicted in Texas.

It''s on the AP wire.

[clovisbuford]

If this guy is guilty, I hope he dies a painful and long torturing death.
Posted by mitchoncbs at 04:14 PM : Nov 19, 2008 yeah nothing should define the American Jurisrudence system like a long painful ,torturing death , there is an American ideal we can all believe in as an American ... another argument for birth control when i read one of these posts .