AP News, April 5th, 2007
An FBI agent was killed in a shootout with three bank robbery suspects Thursday in north central New Jersey, a law enforcement official said.
The FBI confirmed that agent Barry Lee Bush, assigned to the Newark FBI Office, was shot and killed while working a criminal investigation into a series of armed bank robberies.
Law enforcement officials, speaking anonymously because the investigation was ongoing, said agents came upon the suspects leaving a bank near Route 22 in Readington. A shootout ensued.
Two suspects were captured, and one was being sought in nearby woods, officials said. State and local authorities are searching for the suspects with helicopters and dogs.
Josh Bavosa, 35, said he was making a business deposit at the PNC Bank when heard three gunfire bursts that sounded as if they were from an automatic weapon.
When he looked out the window, Bavosa said, he saw law enforcers swarming around a car, pulling two people out and ordering them onto the ground.
State police were coordinating the search for the third suspect, Capt. Al Della Fave said. Close to 100 officers fanned out in the area near a golf course.
Another law enforcement official, speaking anonymously, said the suspects in the shootout were part of a group of young men in their 20s who had been followed by FBI and state police for 2 1/2 weeks.
Other members of the bank robbery group had already been arrested elsewhere in the state, said the official, who thought more arrests were possible.
Bush, 52, joined the FBI in August of 1987, serving in Kansas City and transferring to Newark in 1991. He is survived by a wife and two grown children, the FBI said.
Police in Readington had secured several buildings and barns and were urging residents and business owners to lock their doors and not approach the suspect.
"He didn't hesitate in shooting an FBI agent," Della Fave said.
Giovanni Finazzo, owner of Mangia Bella, a nearby pizzeria, said that other than a string of break-ins several years ago, there is not much crime in the area.
"Are you kidding?" Finazzo asked. "After 7 o'clock, you don't even see a ghost in this town."
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Associated Press writers Angela Delli Santi, Tom Hester Jr. and Chris Newmarker in Trenton, and Jeffrey Gold in Newark contributed to this report.
