Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

"Immediately upon entry into the residence, three Deputy U.S. Marshals were fired upon by a shotgun blast and struck," he said in a statement.

Two of them were taken to a local hospital for treatment while the third was transported by helicopter.

Hope it turns out okay. The DUSM's and their task forces seem to have been taking it on the chin lately. Article didn't mention suspect info. Hopefully DRT and no one else has to bother with him.


U.S. Marshals shot serving warrant in West Virginia - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110216/us_nm/us_shooting_marshals)

1 DUSM dead, 2 injured. It's my understanding that the bandit is dead.

RIP, why does it seem like they are always taking at least one of us with them anymore...

http://yourwvabc.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=94425

One U.S. Marshal Killed, Two Injured in Elkins Shooting
Posted Wednesday, February 16, 2011 ; 10:04 AM | View Comments | Post Comment
Updated Wednesday, February 16, 2011; 03:11 PM

Three deputy marshals were shot. A deputy and the suspect were killed.

ELKINS -- Authorities with several different law enforcement agencies were called to the scene of a fatal shooting in Elkins.

At about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, deputy U.S. Marshals were trying to serve an arrest warrant on Charles Smith, 50, at his house on Central Street, according to officials.

When they entered the home, Smith shot one deputy, in the neck. A second deputy was shot in the shoulder with a shotgun. The third deputy received facial injuries from shrapnel from the shotgun, Federal Magistrate Judge John Kaull said.

A deputy marshal and a state trooper returned fire, killing Smith, state police officials said.

Two of the deputies were taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, where they underwent surgery. One of the deputies died at the hospital, according to Kaull. The other deputy made it through surgery and officials with the U.S. Marshals said they hope for a full recovery.

The third deputy was taken to Davis Memorial Hospital in Elkins, where he was treated and released.

Smith was armed with both a .45 caliber handgun and a shotgun, Kaull said.

Judge Kaull issued the warrant for Smith, who was wanted on Federal drug charges, early Wednesday morning, he said.

In 2006, Smith was indicted by a Federal grand jury on a charge of possession with the intent to distribute crack cocaine.

Marshals had been looking for Smith since March 2010, according to the search warrant.

On Feb. 10, an Elkins police officer saw a man matching Smith's description, near the house on Central Street, the warrant described. The officer informed the deputies, who then filed the search warrant, Tuesday. You can read the full warrant at the link below.

Smith had lived in the house for about a year, neighbors said.

Authorities have blocked off the streets surrounding the house.

The state police, the FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Randolph County Sheriff's Department are on the scene.

The Elkins Fire Department also responded.

Colonel T. S. Pack, the superintendent of the West Virginia State Police, issued the following statement: “Everyday, families of law enforcement officers live with the fact that their loved one may not return home following a shift of work. Today, we are experiencing that sad reality here in West Virginia. The senseless killing of a Deputy United States Marshal weighs heavy upon the heart of the West Virginia State Police family. Our thoughts and prayers remain with his family, friends, and co-workers. May God provide comfort and understanding to all of us during this time of grieving.”

Prayers sent to all...

Rest In Peace

<sigh>
He was just a kid.Link here. (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/derek_hotsinpiller_deputy_us_marshal_killed_in_sho oting_was_24-year-old_recent_academy_grad.php)

Deputy U.S. Marshal Killed In Shooting Was 24-Year-Old Recent Academy Grad
Ryan J. Reilly | February 16, 2011, 4:33PM
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/assets_c/2011/02/marshal-derek-hotsinpiller-cropped-proto-custom_2.jpg

The deputy U.S. Marshal who was killed while serving an arrest warrant on a residence in Elkins, West Virginia this morning was a 24-year-old who graduated from the U.S. Marshals Academy just over a year ago.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller of Bridgeport, W. Va., had worked for the U.S. Marshals Service's Clarksburg office since his graduation just over a year ago from the U.S. Marshals Academy, spokesman Jeff Carter told reporters in an e-mail.

"Hotsinpiller was among several Deputy U.S. Marshals from the Northern District of West Virginia, who, along with members of the West Virginia State Police and The Mountain State Fugitive Task Force were serving an arrest warrant on Charles E. Smith at 319 Central Street in Elkins," Carter said.

"Smith, 50, was wanted on a charges related to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and felon in possession of a firearm," Carter said. "Immediately upon entry into Smith's residence, three Deputy U.S. Marshals were fired upon by a shotgun blast and struck. Deputies returned fire on Smith and he was shot dead on the scene."

The U.S. Marshals Service is not releasing the identities of the injured deputies at this time, Carter said. The FBI and West Virginia State Police are investigating the shooting.

Hotsinpiller was the first deputy U.S. Marshal to die in the line of duty from gunfire since 1992, when William Degan was killed at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The last U.S. Marshals-related death from gunfire took place on Jan. 4, 2010 when Court Security Officer Stanley W. Cooper was killed in Las Vegas. Those figures do not include local task force officers who are from other law enforcement agencies but and are given special deputation.

Two other shootings involving U.S. Marshals personnel took place last month, one in St. Petersberg, Fl. and the other in Miami.

Late Update: Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement:

"Today's shootings in Elkins, West Virginia, demonstrate yet again the danger that our nation's law enforcement officers confront on a daily basis. This morning, while attempting to serve a felony arrest warrant, three Deputy United States Marshals were met with gunfire from a dangerous fugitive who was eventually killed. In fulfilling their critical duties, these courageous Deputies put their lives on the line and put the safety of others above their own.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, who made the ultimate sacrifice today, and with the two Deputies who were injured in the line of duty. Their valiant actions and their service to our nation will not be forgotten, and the Justice Department's ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of all those who serve in law enforcement will continue to be a top priority."

Damn it!

Feb. 16, 2011

One U.S. marshal was killed, and two others were
wounded in a raid on a home in Elkins, W. Va., this
morning. One of the wounded officers remains
hospitalized. The third was treated and released.

The raid began at 8:30 Wednesday morning. The
three deputy marshals were attempting to arrest
Charles E. Smith who was wanted on cocaine charges. A
s the marshals made their move, according to
authorities, someone inside fired a shotgun blast.

The marshal who was fatally wounded was identified
as Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, 24, of
Bridgeport, W. Va., who had worked for the U.S.
Marshals Service for slightly over a year. The two
wounded officers were not identified.

The suspect, Smith, 50, was also killed as in the
incident.

Hotsinpiller's death comes less than a day after a U.S.
immigration and customs enforcement agent (ICE)was
shot and killed in Mexico, along with another agent
who was wounded.


I didn't know DUSM Hotsinpiller, but I work with a bunch of folks who went to the academy with him. I do know a guy who was on scene when it happened. Sad day for everyone involved...its the first Deputy to be killed by gunfire since Ruby Ridge back in '92.

Prayers sent.

<sigh>
He was just a kid.Link here. (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/derek_hotsinpiller_deputy_us_marshal_killed_in_sho oting_was_24-year-old_recent_academy_grad.php)

Deputy U.S. Marshal Killed In Shooting Was 24-Year-Old Recent Academy Grad
Derek Hotsinpiller

DUSM Hotsinpiller was my age when I became a cop, what a sh!tty situation to die so young at the hands of a POS. RIP, bro!

My whole office stopped for a minute when we heard the news. 3 of our guys were in his academy class. I only knew him a little, but I can assure you that he will be missed. There have just been way too many of these lately.

DUSM Hotsinpiller was my age when I became a cop, what a sh!tty situation to die so young at the hands of a POS. RIP, bro!

Yeah, I remember being a young 24 year old DUSM like it was yesterday, not thinking I ever looked that young (but knowing I did). What a loss... I sit here, thinking of his family, knowing it is hardest for those that live on with the grief.

Please pray for my friends and a fellow FLEO that was killed while attempting to serve a Federal Warrant in Elkins WV this morning.

Three USMS Deputies were shot, one died and the other two hospitalized.

My Friend, Deputy Derek Hotsinpillar was shot and killed. He is survived by his mother and his older brother who is detective with the local city police.

One U.S. Marshal Killed, Two Injured in Elkins Shooting - WBOY-TV - WBOY.com (http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=94425)
5 NEWS UPDATE: Deputy U.S. Marshal Killed, Identified (http://www.wdtv.com/index.php/home/local-news/5007-breaking-news-three-us-marshals-hospitalized-after-shooting)

Its been a horrible day gang for our brothers in blue here in WV.

My whole office stopped for a minute when we heard the news. 3 of our guys were in his academy class. I only knew him a little, but I can assure you that he will be missed. There have just been way too many of these lately.

Two of the guys I work with were classes before and after him.


Yeah, I remember being a young 24 year old DUSM like it was yesterday, not thinking I ever looked that young (but knowing I did). What a loss... I sit here, thinking of his family, knowing it is hardest for those that live on with the grief.

When I heard his age, I thought of where I was at that age. Fresh off active duty, a new mom and working on my first PD application process. 24 is too young to be taken...Any age is the wrong age to go out like this. Then I thought of his parents and brother (also a cop)... :nonod:

Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Please pray for my friends and a fellow FLEO that was killed while attempting to serve a Federal Warrant in Elkins WV this morning.

Three USMS Deputies were shot, one died and the other two hospitalized.

My Friend, Deputy Derek Hotsinpillar was shot and killed. He is survived by his mother and his older brother who is detective with the local city police.

Its been a horrible day gang for our brothers in blue here in WV.

Thoughts are with all involved & family & friends

Is it just BIG or has there been a complete lack of reporting on this?

It's a tragedy what happened to the CBS reporter in Egypt and the media is reminding me of such everyday. But, our agents being wounded and killed in Mexico warrants more than just a blurb on the nightly news and the tragedy that has befollowen these DUSM's and their families warrants some sort of coverage.

Condolences to the family of the fallen and wounded Deputies.

Is it just BIG or has there been a complete lack of reporting on this?


No, I wouldn't known about it if I hadn't seen it here. I don't watch the news much, but I do read the headlines in the paper and I never saw anything about it.

Original link here. (http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Derek-Hotsinpiller)

Derek Hotsinpiller
J. C. Casteel · Feb. 20 at 10:49pm

“Quiet, safe, and far removed from the hustle and bustle of modern urban society, Elkins is a quaint community located at the heart of West Virginia's Mountain Highlands.”—City of Elkins Website.
Derek3_I110219205334

On Wednesday, Derek Hotsinpiller, a young man I had never met, never even heard of, died in Elkins. A few of you might recognize the name; if not, please don’t leave to Google it just yet, because I’m going to tell you things about him you won’t read anywhere else.

Derek was born and reared in Bridgeport, another small West Virginia town only 50 miles from where he died. He lived in the woods with his parents and older brother. He hunted, fished, mowed lawns and played basketball. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lieutenant on the city’s small police department. Derek and his brother were in awe of him, and were crushed by his death from a heart attack when Derek was only a freshman in high school.

It seemed only natural that Derek’s brother followed in their father’s footsteps and became a police officer in Bridgeport, and just as natural when Derek pursued a criminal justice degree at Fairmont State. Derek excelled, and in his senior year won a highly sought-after position as a student intern with the U.S. Marshals Service.

Some history is in order here.

The U.S. Marshal is this nation’s oldest law enforcement authority, created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. To place that in perspective, the FBI wasn’t formed until 1908; ATF in 1972; DEA in 1973. It is most simply defined as the enforcement arm of the federal judiciary, a role that has required its deputies to perform such diverse duties as enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and a century later, protection of James Meredith, the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi. It’s not an overstatement to say the U.S. Marshals have played a role in virtually every pivotal event in U.S. history, leading them to refer to their oversized badge as “America’s Star.”

There are only 94 actual U.S. Marshals, each a presidential appointee, one for each federal judicial district. Their deputies (DUSMs) are career civil servants, but are commonly referred to as “U.S. Marshals” as well. The U.S. Marshals Service was formed in 1969 to centralize many of the functions of the district offices. Modern U.S. Marshals serve court process, transport federal prisoners (including the operation of “ConAir”) , run the Federal Witness Protection Program, protect federal courthouses and threatened members of the federal judiciary, seize and dispose of criminal assests, perform international extradictions, and, of course, catch fugitives. In a coup, the FBI relinquished responsibility for apprehending federal fugitives to the Marshals in 1979, believing it to be a headache not worth the little publicity it received. To their chagrin, the Marshals Service seized the opportunity to establish themselves as the world’s premier fugitive finders, a reputation they maintain today. In 2009, for example, the Marshals Service apprehended more than 36,000 federal fugitives, and lead regional multi-agency task forces that apprehended another 98,000 state and local fugitives.

This is all done by only 3,400 Deputy U.S. Marshals. Again, to put that in perspective, the FBI has over 14,000 special agents.

More about Derek Hotsinpiller.

Derek was hired as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 2009. Everything I tell you about how he felt and behaved from this point is assumption, but having been there and having witnessed many young men and women follow the same path, I am very comfortable with it. I can tell you that the day he received his “Conditional Offer of Employment” letter he could barely contain himself. Somewhere in his belongings he still has it.

A few months later he reported to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), a converted naval air base on the southern Georgia coast where most federal law enforcement officers receive their basic training. It’s a vile place just off I-95, infested with sand fleas and cloaked in a perpetual stench from a nearby paper mill that even invades the tap water. Derek was in a class of about 40 candidates, most of them from military or law enforcement backgrounds. At age 23, he was the youngest. For nearly 18 weeks he learned how to shoot a variety of firearms, how to arrest someone, how to fight unarmed, how to drive very fast, how to interview and interrogate, how to act as a body guard, how to enter and search a suspect residence, how to use the latest technology to track a fugitive…Derek loved it, and called his mother and brother often to tell them what happened that day.

Being a former naval base, there is a subdivision of old, single-story homes where officers and their families were once housed. It’s now known as the “Raid Houses”, and is where much of the most intense training takes place. In buildings fitted with surveillance cameras in every room, using a local cadre of live actors, trainees are subjected to one realistic scenario after another, testing their ability to make good decisions under pressure. Everyone fails, everyone gets “killed”, and everyone is embarrassed at some point. It’s a wonderfully painful learning experience.

There is a grim classroom session in which heavily-documented shootings involving U.S. Marshals are coolly dissected for procedural errors. It was uncomfortable for Derek to see men revered as heroes criticized for mistakes that led to their deaths, and to hear the standard admonition, “Don’t wind up as an example at FLETC.”

I’d like to think that Derek’s mother and brother were there the day he graduated from the U.S. Marshals Service Academy. I know his father was. It was perhaps the high point of his life to walk across that stage and be handed that oily black credential case with the huge silver star on front. After shaking the director’s hand he went back to his seat and did what all new graduates do—opened the case to see how his I.D. photo turned out.

Derek was blessed in being assigned to his home state. Many new deputies are not. He was able to see family and friends often, and to work in a region of the country he knew. During his first year he spent a lot of time doing the “grunt” work of the Marshals Service—transporting and sitting in court with prisoners. It’s likely he was sent out for one or two three-week “special assignments” in other parts of the country to give him some experience, which usually consisted of transporting and sitting in court with prisoners in a high-profile trial. But on occasion, usually because most districts are understaffed, and certainly because Derek was viewed as a good deputy, he got to tag along on fugitive arrests.

Last Wednesday, when Derek and two other Marshals loaded up to go to the small town of Elkins to arrest Charles Edward Smith, he was excited to be going on another warrant. He remembered most of what he had been taught. He put his vest on and checked his Glock. He knew, intellectually, he was not invincible. He knew, intellectually, that bad things happen on warrant arrests. But what he felt was that he was a U.S. Marshal, and U.S. Marshals always win.

The first U.S. Marshal to die in the line of duty was shot to death in 1794 entering a house in Georgia. The most recent U.S. Marshal to die in the line of duty was shot to death Wednesday entering a house in Elkins, West Virginia.

Rest well, little brother.

Man that's rough, thoughts and prayers go to his family and his brothers/sisters in the USMS.

It kind of gets me a little more when I look at the picture of the deceased and see that the photo was probably the one taken for his credentials, and him only 24; to have a father and brother, both fellow LEOs, proud of his recent accomplishments and wishing him the best in his new career... that's just rough.