Police Chief Says 2 FBI Agents Shot Woman Colleague in Error

The first female FBI agent to die in the line of duty was shot by two fellow agents who mistook her for a suspect’s girlfriend, the Phoenix police chief said Sunday.

FBI agent Herb Hawkins refused to comment on Chief Ruben Ortega’s statement, but said that his office will have a press conference later this week on the death of Special Agent Robin L. Ahrens, 33. She was shot three times Friday as she and fellow agents moved in to arrest a robbery suspect.

“We know what happened,” Hawkins said. He said that the bureau’s investigation is expected to be finished Tuesday and the press conference probably would take place Thursday. “I just am not permitted to tell you what happened until this inquiry is over.”

Phoenix police officers arrived after the shooting, and officials said the city was still investigating.

Ahrens, of St. Paul, Minn., joined the FBI in November, 1984. Phoenix was her first assignment.

First Woman to Die

She was the first female agent to die on the job since women joined the FBI in 1972, and she was the first agent killed since 1979, FBI spokesman Thomas J. Deakin said in Washington. He estimated there are 500 to 600 female agents out of a total of 8,900.

Ahrens died Saturday, almost seven hours after FBI agents arrested Kenneth Don Barrett, 27, wanted in a Sept. 20 robbery of an armored car driver in Las Vegas.

Barrett was considered armed and extremely dangerous, Hawkins said. Las Vegas police said they found a storage shed with 25 stolen weapons believed to be linked to Barrett, and police said they believed Barrett had one or two submachine guns.

Ortega said that at about 11 p.m. Friday, about a dozen FBI agents gathered outside the apartment house where Barrett was staying with a girlfriend and waited until Barrett came out.

Shot Fired in Struggle

Barrett was confronted by an agent. There was a struggle and a gun was fired, the chief said, and some of the other agents ran toward the scuffle.

While helping to subdue Barrett, two agents saw an armed woman, Ahrens, coming through a dimly lit passageway between two buildings, Ortega said. They opened fire believing she was Barrett’s girlfriend, he said.

Barrett was being held in the Maricopa County jail on a warrant from Nevada.