FBI agent's death is a rare tragedy

As a 19-year FBI agent, Barry Lee Bush worked dangerous, complex cases that sometimes took him to foreign lands.

But to Don Miller, director of parks and recreation in Northampton County's Forks Township, Bush was just a regular guy who worked out three times a week with his wife, Karen, at the community center.

"You would never have thought" Bush had such a daring job, Miller said yesterday. "When I saw everything he did, I was like, 'Wow!' "

On his final assignment Thursday morning, Bush and fellow agents were closing in on three suspected bank robbers when he was shot to death. That tragedy deepened when FBI officials revealed that Bush apparently had been killed accidentally by one of his comrades.

As mourning continued yesterday for the first FBI agent killed on duty in New Jersey, family and neighbors drew a curtain of privacy around the slain agent's home near Easton, Pa., about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.

"At this point we can't" speak, said a woman who answered the phone at the Bush residence. "We're just in mourning, and I appreciate you giving us our privacy."

Neighbors said the FBI had asked them not to speak to reporters.

Bush, 52, was killed outside a Readington, N.J., bank, where members of an FBI task force had tracked three men suspected of robbing four area banks since Feb. 8.

Shots were fired as agents approached a white Acura in which one of the suspects was seated, according to authorities.

Two suspects were arrested at the scene. They were identified as Wilfredo Berrios, 28, and Michael Cruz, 21, both of New Brunswick, N.J. Two assault rifles and a handgun were recovered, but had not been fired.

A third suspect, identified as 22-year-old Francisco Herrera-Genao, also of New Brunswick, fled on foot. He was captured yesterday morning, less than two miles from the Readington bank, after trying to carjack a woman headed for work, authorities said.

The arrest ended a 300-officer manhunt in which Herrera-Genao had emerged half-naked and caked with mud and twigs after a cold night in the woods.

Authorities said he had approached a woman as she prepared to leave her driveway in a black Hyundai Elantra. When he banged on the window and tried to force his way in, the woman hit the gas, sped to nearby Route 22, and called police.

Officers raced to the scene, where police dogs tracked the suspect to a wooded area and flushed him out.

"Just shoot me, just kill me," a shoeless, shirtless Herrera-Genao told the state trooper who approached him, said State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes.

The suspects are expected to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. They are charged with armed robbery and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

According to the FBI, it appeared that Bush "may have been fatally wounded as a result of the accidental discharge of another agent's weapon."

Police shooting other police, while rare, does happen.

Between 1987 and 2005, 43 police officers in the United States were shot and killed by their brethren, at least three in this area.

In October 1989, Philadelphia Police Officer Albert Valentino was shot and killed in the city's Mayfair section after a suspect drew a gun and started firing. Another officer shot back, hitting Valentino in the crossfire.

In December 1992, Philadelphia Police Officer John Barrett responded to a fellow officer's Mount Airy home after a burglar alarm went off there. The other officer returned home shortly afterward and, startled by Barrett, shot him.

In March 2005, not far from Bush's home, Easton Police Officer Jesse Sollman was shot and killed at police headquarters. A fellow officer's gun had discharged when he bumped into Sollman after a training exercise.

A spokesman for the FBI's Newark office, where Bush had been based, did not return calls yesterday.

Jerri Williams, spokeswoman for the FBI's Philadelphia office, said bureau policy requires two independent investigations of any shooting involving FBI personnel.

"We don't want to say anything that would interfere with the investigations," Williams said. "So we're not saying anything."

Bush had joined the FBI in August 1987, serving in Kansas City, Mo., before transferring to Newark in 1991.

He had started out as an officer in Boyertown, Berks County, and then moved on to Pottstown before joining the FBI.

Amy Bertolette, a criminal investigator for the Boyertown Police Department, recalled Bush from her days as a dispatcher in Pottstown.

She said he was friendly, generous with advice, and quick to take on tasks, earning the respect of his peers.

"You can't really say anybody was better than Barry Bush," she said. "I couldn't tell you I ever saw him in a bad mood.

Bush was "so thrilled" when the FBI took him on, Bertolette recalled. But even years after hitting the big time, she said, he still poked his head in at his former police stations.

"He didn't forget where he came from," she said.

Knowing that Bush's death came from a colleague's gunshot makes it even harder, Bertolette said: "Unfortunately, there are a lot of hazards in this job. You would hope it wouldn't come from people you work with."

Bush is survived by his wife and two grown children, the FBI said.

"It's a terrible loss to the community," Bertolette said. "I feel so bad for his family."