GLENSHAW, Pa. - The wife of a drug suspect has been charged with killing an FBI (web) agent who showed up at the couple's house near Pittsburgh to arrest her husband. Allegheny County police say Christina Korbe (KOR'-bee) was charged with homicide in the shooting death Wednesday morning of agent Sam Hicks. He and other law enforcers had gone to the home in Indiana Township to serve a warrant on Robert Korbe as part of a drug sweep.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

GLENSHAW, Pa. (AP) - An FBI agent was fatally shot Wednesday as he tried to arrest an alleged cocaine dealer at a home near Pittsburgh.

Agent Samuel Hicks was shot about 6 a.m. in the middle-class community of Indiana Township. He was taking part in a drug-ring roundup at the home of Robert Korbe, who was taken into custody on the drug charges.

Korbe told reporters as he was being led into a police car that "they shot their own guy."

FBI agent William Crowley, an agency spokesman, said, "Based on the information we have right now, every indication is that no shot was fired by law enforcement at the crime scene."

Hicks, 33, had been with the FBI since March 2007. He was a former Baltimore police officer and school teacher with a wife and 3-year-old son.

"Special Agent Hicks made the ultimate sacrifice that any law enforcement officer makes for his country," Michael Rodriguez, agent in charge of the Pittsburgh FBI office, said in a statement read to reporters.

"He served with honor and bravery and will be greatly missed by his colleagues here in Pittsburgh and throughout the FBI," he said.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said: "The loss of Sam Hicks is a tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Sam's family and the members of the Pittsburgh field office."

Korbe appeared briefly in federal court later Wednesday. He was one of 35 people charged in a 27-count drug-trafficking indictment unsealed the same day; it accuses the defendants of conspiring to traffic cocaine and crack from October 2007 through September.

The agent's shooting was not discussed at the hearing. Korbe was represented by a public defender but told the judge he planned to hire his own attorney.

Korbe's wife, Christina Korbe, was not named in the drug indictment but was being questioned by detectives about the shooting, said James Morton, Allegheny County assistant police superintendent.

The last FBI special agent killed in the line of duty was Barry Lee Bush, who was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow agent outside a bank on April 5, 2007, in Readington, N.J., according to the FBI.

Bush, 52, of Forks Township, Pa., and other agents were in pursuit of three bank robbers who were armed but did not fire their weapons, authorities said.

---

Associated Press writer Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Written By DAN NEPHIN

Email To A Friend