CLEVELAND Attempted murder charge filed in case
Two agents are on leave during the investigation.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have charged a man with attempted murder in the shooting of a federal officer after a shootout that left an FBI informant dead.
Prosecutors accuse Aubrey Waller, 22, of Cleveland, of shooting from the back of a sport utility vehicle at agents attempting to rescue informant Darnell Lester from an apparent kidnapping Tuesday.
Lester, 26, who was in the front passenger seat, was shot and killed. It was unclear who shot him, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.
The driver of the SUV, Gary Ervin, was injured.
Eighteen agents and local police detectives swooped in after FBI agents received calls from Lester saying he had been kidnapped.
Details
According to the FBI affidavit, agents tried to surround the SUV with five cars, but Ervin rammed the vehicles and tried to run over one agent.
The agent then fired at Ervin.
Ervin crashed the SUV into a fence, and Waller emerged from the back seat, firing a gun at a pursuing FBI car, court records found.
A second agent then fired at the SUV.
The two agents, Robert McBride and Todd Werth, are on leave while the shooting is investigated, officials said.
Lester's relatives said more should have been done to protect him.
"There was no way that they should have shot in that van," said Lester's cousin, Sharonda Jones. "They knew he was a hostage in that van."
FBI spokesman Robert Hawk declined to comment.
Waller also was charged Wednesday with a weapons violation.
He was released from jail last month despite charges that he violated his probation on gun-possession charges, court records show.