LITHONIA, Ga. – Two federal agents were shot early Friday at a suburban Atlanta apartment complex while serving search warrant for firearms.
The agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and DeKalb County police were met with "numerous rounds of gunfire" after knocking and announcing their presence, said Jeffrey Pearce, assistant special agent in charge of the ATF office in Atlanta.
Two agents were struck, one in the knee and one in the lower abdomen, he said.
Pearce did not say whether the agents returned fire. He said the suspects were not wounded.
After the shooting, other agents persuaded the suspects to surrender. Two men and a woman were taken into custody on state aggravated assault charges.
Federal charges were pending, Pearce said.
The wounded agents, members of a fugitive task force, were taken to hospitals and were expected to survive, DeKalb County police dispatchers said.
Pearce said the agents' names likely will not be released.
"They handled themselves, from the information I've been given, in an exemplary fashion," he said. "Unfortunately, with the violence we see ongoing in America and Georgia as well, agents face this kind of danger on a daily basis."
Between six and 10 agents, in addition to DeKalb County police, carried out the raid, Pearce said.
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