SALMON, IDAHO, Aug 11: A California fugitive suspected of killing a longtime friend and her son and kidnapping her 16-year-old daughter was shot dead in the remote Idaho wilderness by an FBI agent Yesterday and the girl rescued safely, law enforcement officials said.
James Lee DiMaggio, 40, was slain by an FBI agent while authorities were attempting to take him into custody at Morehead Lake in the rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wildnerness, San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said at an afternoon news conference.
The girl, Hannah Anderson, was found with DiMaggio at the lake, about 144 km northeast of Boise, and rescued by authorities apparently in good health. She was taken by helicopter to an Idaho hospital and will be reunited with her father as early as today.
“Hannah is safe and that’s the best outcome we were hoping for, our top priority,” Andrea Dearden, spokeswoman for the Ada County Sheriff’s Department, told reporters at a separate news briefing in Cascade, Idaho, just outside the wilderness park.
Mary Rook, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Salt Lake City office, said DiMaggio and the teen were spotted by agents with a special hostage rescue team at a campsite near the lake at about 5:20 p.M. Mountain Time (7:20 p.M. EDT).
“Agents moved in to rescue Hannah and the suspect is deceased,” she said.
Rook declined to provide more details of what she called a “very challenging situation” pending an investigation of the incident by an FBI shooting review team. It was not immediately clear if DiMaggio fired on the agents but there were no reports of law enforcement officers injured in the operation.
“Now that Hannah is safe and being evaluated in a medical facility, FBI victim specialists are working with Hannah and her family to get them the resources they need as they enter this next challenging phase of this incident,” she said. (AGENCIES)
^^^
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel