Two Dead in Florida Prison Shooting; Guards Charged in Sex-for-Booze Case Wednesday, June 21, 2006 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A furious gun battle erupted inside a federal prison Wednesday when a guard opened fire on FBI agents who had come to arrest him and several others on charges of having sex with female inmates in exchange for money, alcohol and pot. Two people were killed and another was wounded.
The dead were the guard and a U.S. Justice Department investigator, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. A prison employee helping with the arrest was hospitalized.
Six guards in all had been indicted Tuesday in an alleged sex-for-contraband scheme that authorities said went on for two years.
When FBI agents and Justice Department investigators arrived at the prison Wednesday to arrest the men, one of the indicted guards shot a federal correctional officer, said FBI spokesman John Girgenti. He said the officers fired back.
The agents were not expecting the prison guards to be armed, the law enforcement official told the AP, though he could not immediately explain why.
The official said the guard fired with a personal weapon, wounding a Bureau of Prisons employee who was assisting with the arrest. Agents from the Justice Department's inspector general's office returned fire, killing the guard, the official said, adding that a Justice Department agent was killed in the exchange. It was not immediately clear who fired that fatal shot.
