FBI agent shot in leg while serving warrant in Denver suburb
May 8, 2015, 7:00 PM
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — An FBI agent who was serving an arrest warrant at a suburban Denver motel Friday was shot in the leg by the suspect but is expected to survive. The suspect then shot and killed himself.
Littleton police Cmdr. Trent Cooper said the agent, whose name has not been released, was shot in the calf at the Essex House Motel in Littleton at about 4 p.m. The agent, a SWAT team member, was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect fired two shots at law enforcement agents, who did not fire back. He then shot himself in the room.
“It’s horrible. Whenever you hear that radio traffic that shots are fired and an officer’s been shot, that’s the last thing you ever want to hear,” Littleton police Cmdr. Trent Cooper said. “It really gets your adrenaline going, that’s for sure.”
FBI spokeswoman Amy Sanders said the multi-agency task force was serving the warrant for a suspected bank robber dubbed the “Longhorn Bandit.”
The FBI said in March it was looking for the man in connection with six bank robberies this year in metropolitan Denver. The name came from video showing the man wearing a Texas Longhorns baseball cap during the robberies. In each case, the man presented a note, received money and fled, according to the FBI.
“Any individual who commits a violent crime like a bank robbery, we are going to treat with great precaution, and unfortunately one of our agents was hurt today. Fortunately it’s not life threatening,” said Michael Rankin, FBI assistant special agent in charge in Denver.
Rankin declined to release details about the investigation, including the suspect’s name and what type of gun he was carrying.
Officers who responded to the two-story motel about 10 miles south of Denver gathered near the doorway of the room where the shooting took place. Nearby South Santa Fe Drive, a busy thoroughfare that links Littleton to downtown Denver, was closed in both directions for several hours because of the police activity.
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