The search for a man wanted in the shooting attacks on two metropolitan police officers ended in a hail of gunfire after the suspect ambushed and killed an FBI agent and was himself slain, authorities said.
FBI Special Agent William Christian Jr., 48, was about to arrest Ralph McLean, 29, Monday at a school parking lot in Greenbelt, Md., when McLean shot him, authorities said.After a foot chase that ended at a shopping mall several blocks away, McLean was killed in a furious gunbattle with other police and FBI agents also staking out the parking lot.
The service revolver of a Prince George's County, Md., officer, slain several weeks ago, also was found on McLean's body, authorities said.
"There is no word to describe my anger," Lane Crocker, special agent in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, said of Christian's death. "It was a cowardly, cold-blooded act of murder."
Maryland Gov. Parris Glen-den-ing ordered flags at state buildings flown at half-staff Monday, calling Christian's death a painful reminder "of the price too often paid by our law enforcement officers."
Christian had gone to the Greenbelt Middle School parking lot to await the arrival of McLean, whom investigators believed would come there to meet his ex-girlfriend.
As Christian, a 20-year FBI veteran, sat in his car, McLean is believed to have approached quietly from a wooded area and opened fire through Christian's window with a semiautomatic pistol. The agent apparently never drew his own weapon.
Christian, a married father of four who lived near Woodbridge, Va., became the 32nd FBI agent to be killed in the line of duty in the bureau's 87-year history.
He had been assigned to surveillance duty with agents who were looking for McLean in attacks on two District of Columbia police officers in January, the FBI said.
Washington Police Sgt. Eric Hayes was wounded Jan. 17 while he sat in his cruiser. Officer Vance Warren was wounded when he was shot through the window of a restaurant while he worked as a security guard on the night of Jan. 10.
Prince George's police said preliminary tests on McLean's weapon showed the same gun was used to ambush police Cpl. John Novabilski, who died while he was moonlighting in uniform as a security guard at a liquor store April 26.