Imagine you’re in charge of busting people in suburban Pittsburgh and you’re trying to arrest a suspected drug trafficker who has not shown a proclivity to violence. Do you A) apprehend the suspect on the way to his car, B) conduct an undercover operation to lure him into a trap, or C) send FBI agents with guns drawn into his home with children inside before dawn without giving the cops proper body armor?
You are correct if you picked C. The suspect ran from the door—big surprise—but a woman inside who wasn’t expecting visitors at 6:00 a.m. pulled a gun and fired at the pack of unfamiliar men as they barreled through her front door. Christina Korbe’s shot killed FBI Special Agent Samuel Hicks and she is now charged with homicide.
“It looks like they followed all the procedures and did everything right in this case,” said [FBI Agent] McCabe, who detailed the process the FBI uses to determine how to coordinate arrests. “But it wasn’t the suspect they were after who is accused of shooting Agent Hicks. It was his wife. You can’t plan for every possible outcome.”
Christina Korbe told investigators she never heard police announce themselves and fired her .38-caliber pistol because she feared for her children’s safety. She called 911 and said she “shot an intruder.”
RIP, Samuel Hicks. Sorry you died a senseless, preventable death.
I wonder if the families of these dead law enforcement agents feel it was worth losing their loved ones in order to apprehend drug traffickers? I wonder, does anyone thinks that it’s worth it?
in texas she’d walk. in PA? she’ll do serious time.
link?
Unfortunately, it’s going to be a case of “he-said/she-said” with the “he” in this instance being a large cadre of LEA’s who will swear up-and-down on a stack of bibles that they identified themselves before smashing down the door.
Senseless, stupid, meaningless death.
Maybe these geniuses should be required to pack army-style helmet cams to record this shit – at least then, if they’re telling the truth, the recorded footage would back them up.
Which of course, is probably why they DON’T wear the cams…
If there is justice the charges would be dropped. If the cops had kicked in the door and shot and killed her AND her children, even if she were unarmed, they would walk.
These stories are SO SAD. I think they’re the saddest stories on Slog. At least the tragic evil boyfriend/girlfriend/parent/stranger stories are mostly just random evil people out there. This is our GOVERNMENT.
Is there some kind of good legal fund out there for drug crimes? We need to (at least) make these armed raids STOP.
And what if they did announce they were from the FBI? Anybody can yell “FBI!” before they kick a door down. If it’s illegal to shoot somebody who claims to be from the FBI, why wouldn’t every armed robber just yell “FBI” before they charged in with guns blazing?
You’re right, this kind of thing is insane. It springs from an occupying army mentality. It’s not necessary, it’s not good law enforcement, it leads to preventable deaths and it further alienates people from their government.
Yes indeed… drugs have won the war on drugs.
“We identified ourselves”
You came in when you knew the residents were asleep. Why did you do that?
“To suprise them.”
So they were surpised?
“Well, some lady with a pistol took a shot at a half dozen paramilitary police and told 911 someone was breaking into her house, so I’d say yeah, we surprised the shit out of them.”
And guns. I blame guns too.
This has to stop. Government agents can not abruptly and violently raid family homes and expect anything less than a violent defense of the family.
How does this end?
…better him than her. Good shootin!
I was talking about the Southcenter shooting to a couple of the nursing assistants here from Africa and they both shook their heads. “You have too much freedom in this country,” one of them said. I wonder what they will say when I tell them this story.
@7:
That’s probably true, theoretically at least. But the identification is basically a CYA tactic, and if the defense in this case could establish reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury that they didn’t take that step, then there would be pretty good justification to argue for self-defense in the shooting.
This is why we seriously need to defund the Sherrif’s department at King county.
@2 “in [sic] texas she’d walk”? Dude, WTF?
We all know that here in the shadow of the Texas School Cook Suppository Building she’d more likely than not be riddled with .223 80 grain FMJ slugs. Same shit got used on Anwar Sadat. Tiny little hole goin’ in and dessert plate goin out!
And if she somehow survived the righteous wrath of our boys in blue tactical, she’d get popped by a CI in a hat before her trial.
And if she somehow managed to survive that, the People would go after her with all the zeal they seem to reserve for cop killers.
That’s justice Texas-style.
Shoot a cop here, run like hell. You think you might just be about to get buckled, eat a bullet.
There are far far too few people who see shooting an armed police officer for any reason to be a mitigating factor as it should be rather than an aggravating factor.
THIS IS WHAT OUR TAX MONEY GOES TO? clap, clap, slap.
The WHOLE FAMILY LIVED??? The FBI didn’t even shoot the family’s pets?
@18 – they’re waiting until the fuss dies down to do that, Amelia.
Wow.
I’ve been reading about Ryan Frederick – similar situation except it sounds like he was set up by a police informant who confused his Japanese Maple plants for marijuana.
Similar home invasion, similar defensive strategy, similar result, similar bullshit from the officials….
I love how this story puts an ironic twist on the conservative ideal of the gun-toting citizen protecting her home and family from a criminal by shooting them.
This story is simultaneously horrible and awesome. It’s horrible because it ends with a tragic and preventable death. It’s awesome because it blows TWO conservative motifs out of the water.
She is lucky in one respect: if it was the City of Pittsburgh police, she would have left her house horizontally.
BTW, jackass, the husband has multiple VIOLENT priors including ag assault on a law enforcement officer. Do some research next time.