FBI agent is killed during stakeout

An FBI agent who was killed Thursday when a stakeout team opened fire on three armed bank robbery suspects might have been shot accidentally by another agent, the FBI said.

Agent Barry Lee Bush, 52, assigned to the Newark office, died after agents confronted three men suspected in a series of armed bank robberies. Two of the men were captured.

“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.

Pedro Ruiz, an agent in charge of the Newark office, said the suspects did not fire their weapons, which included two assault rifles and a handgun. He said he did not know how many shots were fired and declined to elaborate about what led the agents to shoot.

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.

The agents found three suspects outside a bank on Route 22 in Readington about noon Thursday.

Josh Bavosa, 35, said he was making a business deposit at the PNC Bank when he heard three gunfire bursts that sounded as if they were from an automatic weapon. When he looked out the window, Bavosa said, he saw authorities swarming around a car, pulling two people out and ordering them onto the ground.

Two suspects were captured, officials said. Authorities were searching for another man who ran into the woods.