The special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been reprimanded and transferred for his involvement in the Randy Weaver shootout in northern Idaho.
Eugene F. Glenn was given a 15-day suspension and removed from field command by FBI Director Louis Freeh. He was one of 12 agents disciplined as a result of the 1992 standoff at Weaver's Ruby Ridge, Idaho, cabin that resulted in the deaths of a federal marshal and Weaver's wife and son.Freeh ordered Glenn censured and reassigned to Washington to as-yet unspecified duties. His was the single most severe penalty given to any of the agents punished for their involvement in the incident.
The disciplinary action is subject to approval by the U.S. attorney's office.
Glenn was the on-scene commander at Ruby Ridge and, according to an FBI news release, approved the controversial "rules of engagement" that gave federal agents the green light to shoot any armed adult in the vicinity of the cabin.
An FBI sniper subsequently shot and killed Vicki Weaver as she stood holding her 10-month-old infant daughter in the doorway of the cabin. The sniper said he was shooting at Weaver and another man, Kevin Harris, as they ducked back inside.
Freeh said the rules approved by Glenn and implemented by an FBI hostage rescue team "arguably directed agents to act contrary to FBI policy and law," although they did not directly lead to Vicki Weaver's death.
"This action is based on SAC Glenn's inadequate performance as on-scene commander in approving the rules of engagement and his failure adequately and personally to address the poor working relationship with the United States attorney's office," Freeh was quoted in a news release issued Friday.
A telephone call to the FBI office in Salt Lake City was referred to the bureau's Washington press office. A receptionist who declined to give her name said Glenn "was not at his desk" and could not come to the telephone.