It can be one of the most dangerous tasks for a law enforcement officer: serving an arrest warrant to a suspected killer.
And when Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells tried to do that Tuesday, he lost his life.
Wells was trying to arrest Jamie Croom, who is suspected in the deaths of a brother and sister in New Roads, Louisiana, CNN affiliate WAFB said.
Authorities would not elaborate on what happened next, but the Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge said a shootout followed.
Croom shot and killed Wells at a motel where authorities had gone to arrest him, the newspaper said.
The 28-year-old deputy U.S. Marshal was married and was on temporary assignment in the Baton Rouge area, the Sun Herald in Mississippi reported.
His friends said Wells knew the risks of his work.
“It was his passion,” longtime friend Alex McGee told the paper. “I tipped my hat to him because he knew the dangers and wanted to do the job anyway.”
Croom, the suspect, was wounded in the incident and was taken to a hospital, WAFB said. He was wanted for the shooting deaths of the two siblings in February.
That double homicide stemmed from a feud over a loan made to one of the victim’s relatives as well as an alleged break-in at the suspects’ grandmother’s house, Croom’s older sister Latonia Croom Duncan told CNN.
Duncan said the family reported threats and a shooting at her grandmother’s house to police, but said there was never any follow-up.
Duncan said her brother called her the night of the homicides, which took place at a nightclub.
“The night of the shooting, he called me and said he loved me and that he’d be gone,” Duncan said.
Croom was on probation for firearms charges, CNN affiliate WBRZ reported.
“He said he wasn’t going back to jail. Before he’d go back to jail, he said he’d rather be dead.”
