Who were the FBI agents killed in Florida? Both had history of pursuing child-porn cases

Aaron Leibowitz, David Ovalle, Jay Weaver
Updated

The two FBI agents fatally shot while serving a warrant Tuesday morning in Sunrise were Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, both of whom had a distinguished history of investigating child pornography and sexual exploitation cases in South Florida.

FBI Director Christopher Wray identified the two in a statement on Tuesday.

“Every day, FBI special agents put themselves in harm’s way to keep the American people safe. Special Agent Alfin and Special Agent Schwartzenberger exemplified heroism today in defense of their country. The FBI will always honor their ultimate sacrifice and will be forever grateful for their bravery,” Wray said in the statement.

Alfin had worked on multiple high-profile cases, according to court records and media coverage.

Last March, he helped bring a case against former Miami mayoral aide Rene Pedrosa for allegedly groping a teen boy at City Hall and exchanging lewd photos. Alfin authored the affidavit filed in support of federal charges against Pedrosa for production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Alfin had been an FBI special agent since 2009, according to his affidavit in the Pedrosa case. He said he had testified in federal court more than 20 times in more than 10 federal districts, and was assigned to the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force in Miami.

Alfin was also involved in a large-scale FBI hacking campaign known as Operation Pacifier, designed to investigate crimes on the dark web and seize child pornography from a website called Playpen. Alfin testified in federal court that FBI and Department of Justice executives had approved a plan for the FBI to briefly operate the Playpen site after they seized it in an effort to identify users.

Playpen founder Steven W. Chase of Naples was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2017.

“It’s the same with any criminal violation: As they get smarter, we adapt, we find them,” Alfin said at the time in a story about the case published on the FBI website. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game, except it’s not a game. Kids are being abused, and it’s our job to stop that.”

Schwartzenberger wrote in a criminal affidavit last year that she had been an FBI special agent since 2005. She said she was assigned to the Miami outpost of the agency’s Innocent Images National Initiative, which investigates the online sexual exploitation of children.

“I have conducted and assisted in several child exploitation investigations and have executed search warrants that have led to seizures of child pornography,” she said in the affidavit, which supported charges related to child porn and enticement of a minor by a North Miami Beach man.

In 2018, Schwartzenberger spoke to a local TV station in West Palm Beach to warn of a “sextortion” scam involving con artists who would falsely claim they hacked into people’s webcams and then demand money to prevent the release of compromising photos.

“It is very traumatizing for the victim,” Schwartzenberger told CBS12 News. “Their reputation is on the line.”

At least twice in recent years, Schwartzenberger visited Rockway Middle School in Westchester to speak to students about online safety and cybercrimes, according to posts on social media.

“Great to have FBI Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger join us to present to our 6th Grade Legal Studies & Forensic Science students about online safety and cyber crimes!” the school posted on Twitter last February.

On Tuesday morning, Alfin and Schwartzenberger were killed and three other FBI agents were wounded while serving a warrant at a home in Sunrise. After barricading himself in the home for several hours, the suspected gunman is believed to have shot and killed himself, a law enforcement source told the Herald.

Sunrise police said the man, who was suspected of child pornography possession, had holed up in his home at an apartment complex at 10100 Reflections Blvd. West. The child pornography case was being investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by federal prosecutors in Fort Lauderdale.

Originally published

Latest Stories

  • Fauci urges COVID vaccinations to stop new strains: 'Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate'

    As the U.S. turned the page on the deadliest month since the coronavirus pandemic began, the nation's top infectious disease expert urged Americans to get vaccinated to help prevent new variants from emerging.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Republicans who accept election process ‘weak’ in spat with Mitch McConnell

    A few old remarks by Ms Greene, including one where she suggested that school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, were staged, resurfaced last week

  • FBI: 2 agents killed, 3 wounded, suspect dead in Florida

    Two FBI agents were fatally shot and three wounded while trying to serve a search warrant in Florida on Tuesday, prompting a SWAT team to storm an apartment building where the suspect was holed up as neighbors huddled inside their homes. The confrontation in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise marked one of the bloodiest days in FBI history in South Florida and among the deadliest nationally as well, according to the FBI website. The FBI agents had come to the apartment complex to serve a federal search warrant in connection with a case involving child pornography and violent crimes against children, according to FBI Miami Special Agent Michael D. Leverock and FBI Agents Association President Brian O’Hare.

  • New York health experts quit as Cuomo crafts his own delay-plagued vaccination plans

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has long bragged about New York's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, crafting a foam mountain and writing a book in attempts to prove the state had conquered the pandemic. But the state's COVID-19 numbers have since summited a far larger mountain and its vaccination rate lags behind 19 other states', all while Cuomo continues to sidestep top health officials, The New York Times reports. New York health officials spent years preparing vaccination plans with local health departments, spurred largely by bioterrorism fears after 9/11. But Cuomo abandoned that plan in favor of having hospitals coordinate vaccinations. Cuomo met with "hospital executives, outside consultants, and a top hospital lobbyist" to make those plans, the Times reports; New York's first vaccine ended up going to a nurse from that lobbyist's hospital. In the first few weeks of the vaccine's rollout, the state ended up canceling appointments because they didn't have supplies to meet the demand. Current and former health officials have meanwhile felt shunted throughout the process, with one former official telling the Times that "morale certainly was and continues to be at an all-time low." Nine top state health officials have even resigned or retired throughout the pandemic. Cuomo even sidelined the New York City Health Department's plans to expand childhood vaccination procedures to the whole city population. In an October letter, Cuomo told the Trump administration to only work with the state in coordinating vaccine distribution, one city official told the Times. This "extensive red tape and unnecessary rigidity ... made an extraordinarily difficult task all the more challenging," a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Times. There's no way of knowing if New York City's plan, or the one experts spent years organizing, would've performed better. But while Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa contends oversubscriptions for vaccine appointments mean their system worked just fine, one epidemiologist says hospitals were never built to handle this kind of public health crisis. Read more at The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comMeatballs, f-bombs, vote fraud conspiracies: A Trump Oval Office meeting so insane, Giuliani was 'the voice of reason'Rise of the Barstool conservativesBiden has to choose whether to replace Trump's inspectors general, especially 1 pushed in by McConnell

  • Sorry not sorry: Ursula von der Leyen refuses to resign over AstraZeneca vaccine row

    Ursula von der Leyen has refused to apologise for the coronavirus vaccines row that led to Brussels threatening a hard border on the island of Ireland and demanded she only be judged in three years' time when her term of office is over. The under-fire European Commission president made clear she would not quit over the fiasco and defended the slow pace of the EU’s vaccination rollout compared with Britain, insisting it was “safer”, in newspaper interviews aimed at quelling growing criticism of her across the bloc. Mrs von der Leyen, whose time as Germany’s defence minister was dogged by failure, was asked how things had gone so badly wrong a week after her commission attacked AstraZeneca for failing to fulfil vaccine orders. "People are very stressed by the ongoing corona pandemic. I fully understand that anger and emotions," she said. “In politics there are always ups and downs and even more so in times of crisis, but what matters is the final assessment." "Let's wait until the end of the term to see the successes and mistakes and then we will take stock," Mrs von der Leyen, whose five-year term finishes at the end of 2024, added. Mrs von der Leyen will face MEPs from pro-EU European Parliament parties in behind closed meetings about the affair this evening. While Britain used emergency procedures to grant market approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine, and signed a contract with the company three months before Brussels, the EU used a slower process overseen by the European Medicines Agency. “The commission and the member states agreed not to compromise on the safety and efficacy requirements linked to the authorisation of a vaccine,” Mrs von der Leyen said. "We make mistakes every day. We learn every day. That corona pandemic is like a rollercoaster. But I am convinced that we can only get out of this pandemic together. “If every member state had entered the market for itself, the EU would not have had five of the six successful vaccines available now." The commission launched an unprecedented attack on Astrazeneca last week after the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company said it could only supply a quarter of the jabs it had aimed for in the first quarter of the year. Brussels accused AstraZeneca of breaching its contract and, amid suspicions it had supplied EU vaccine stock to the UK, launched plans to force all EU vaccine manufacturers to ask for permission before exporting jabs out of the bloc.

  • Biden tells Senate Democrats that GOP coronavirus plan is "too small"

    President Biden told Senate Democrats at a virtual lunch on Tuesday that Republicans' current $618 billion coronavirus relief proposal is "too small," but he wants to continue working toward a compromise and is willing to bend on the final price, a source on the call tells Axios.Why it matters: Biden made clear he is not giving up on finding a bipartisan path to passing stimulus legislation, despite many Democrats urging him to use the budget reconciliation process to bypass the GOP. He also said that the White House has red lines that they're unwilling to budge on, including the salary minimums for receiving stimulus checks.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.What we're hearing: The president told the Senate Democratic caucus that there is no harm in spending too much, but there is harm in spending too little, and applauded the party for continuing to think big. * He said the Senate Republican offer of doling out $1,400 checks to people making $50,000 a year or less was a nonstarter, adding that his administration won't agree to anything lower than the full payment to individuals making $75,000 or less per year. * He then referred to a hypothetical "family of four" whose prime earners were a nurse and pipe-fitter, and how they may only make $150,000 combined, but are still worried about their jobs. "We can't leave them out," Biden said. * He didn't take any questions before hanging up on the call. * Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized Biden's insistence on ensuring they didn't underestimate the money needed to keep the economy in check, and then took several questions, which resulted in the meeting descending into chaos, the source on the call said.The president called into the Zoom rather than joining the video call. He told senators that the White House doesn’t have Zoom in the Oval Office, and he would have had to go to the Roosevelt Room to video in.Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

  • Aspen’s Bustling Arts and Culture Scene Thrives Amid the Pandemic

    According to AD100 designer Rodman Primack, who recently set up shop in the town: “Design thinking actually created modern Aspen and its great music and art institutions”Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Ex-Nebraska clerk praised for tornado work gets prison term

    A former northeastern Nebraska village clerk who was praised for her work in helping rebuild her community following a 2014 tornado strike has been sentenced to prison for stealing from the village. Kimberly Neiman, 58, was sentenced Monday in Stanton County District Court to three years in prison, the Norfolk Daily News reported. Neiman was arrested last year on multiple felony theft and other counts.

  • Russia's Sputnik V vaccine 92% effective in fighting COVID-19

    MOSCOW (Reuters) - - Scientists gave Russia's Sputnik V vaccine the green light on Tuesday saying it was almost 92% effective in fighting COVID-19 based on peer-reviewed late-stage trial results published in The Lancet international medical journal. Experts said the Phase III trial results meant the world had another effective weapon to fight the deadly pandemic and justified to some extent Moscow's decision to roll out the vaccine before final data had been released. The results, collated by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow that developed and tested the vaccine, were in line with efficacy data reported at earlier stages of the trial, which has been running in Moscow since September.

  • Archaeologists unearth 2,000-year-old mummies with golden tongues in northern Egypt

    Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed more than a dozen 2,000-year-old mummies, including some with gold tongues in their mouths, according to the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The Egyptian-Dominican team from the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic was working at the Taposiris Magna Temple in western Alexandria when it discovered the remains of 16 ancient Egyptians buried in rock tombs. The mummies were poorly preserved and in a state of significant decomposition, but photographs released by the ministry showed a human skeleton with a clearly visible, tongue-shaped piece of gold placed in its jaw. According to officials, the amulets “were placed in the mouth of the mummy in a special ritual to ensure their ability to speak in the afterlife before the Osirian court.” In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god of the afterlife, as well as fertility and agriculture. Dr Kathleen Martinez, who headed the team, explained that of the 16 mummies, the two most important had preserved alongside them the remains of scrolls and parts of their cartonnage – a kind papyrus or linen-based papier-mache used to construct the intricate “face masks” that envelop the mummified bodies inside their sarcophagi.

  • ‘Bring Trump to justice’: Missouri paper says Hawley should back impeachment or resign

    Senator was the first to back ex-president’s spurious election challenge

  • McConnell Urges Caucus to Oppose Mayorkas for Biden DHS Secretary

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Senate Republicans to vote against President Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, blasting Alejandro Mayorkas as an “ethically-compromised partisan lawyer.” “Frankly, his record should foreclose confirmation, even to a lower post,” McConnell said Tuesday in a withering speech on the Senate floor, adding that it is “remarkable that someone with this record is even up for a Cabinet appointment. I’ll be voting against his confirmation and urge our colleagues to do the same.” The Kentucky Republican listed several aspects of Mayorkas’s career that he said make the DHS veteran unworthy of the Cabinet post. “As a high-ranking official in the Obama administration, Mr. Mayorkas did his best to turn U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services into an unethical favor factory for Democratic Party royalty,” McConnell continued. McConnell referenced an inspector general report that discovered Mayorkas had intervened to help several foreign investors connected to high-profile Democrats obtain green cards. Mayorkas previously headed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he promoted a “culture of fear and disrespect,” McConnell charged. The Senate GOP leader said he has supported Biden’s other Cabinet nominees up to this point because they are “mainstream” choices, but argued Mayorkas is “something else.” A handful of other Senate Republicans have also voiced concern about Mayorkas’s nomination as DHS chief. “There’s a number of problems with that nomination that we need to talk about,” Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said last week. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Mayorkas’s qualifications “unassailable.” “He is a seven-year veteran of the DHS and has already been confirmed by this chamber three — three — times,” Schumer said. “Like most of President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, his nomination is also history-making: He will be the first Latino and first immigrant to hold the top job at DHS.” The Senate voted to confirm Mayorkas as DHS Secretary Tuesday afternoon in a 56-43 vote. So far, five of Biden’s Cabinet-level nominees have been confirmed: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

  • Biden administration will ship COVID vaccine directly to pharmacies

    More than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to about 6,500 pharmacies across the U.S. beginning Feb. 11, the White House said Tuesday. Why it matters: Local, national and supermarket pharmacies have an existing customer base, user portals and other established resources when it comes to mass flu and shingles immunization protocols. The federal government hopes this will expand access and speed up the vaccination process.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.Yes, but: The demand for vaccine in these new channels is expected to far outweigh the supply, COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said in a press briefing Tuesday. The state of play: The million doses are in addition to the 10.5 million doses that are scheduled to go to states, and other jurisdictions. * Eventually the federal government wants to reach 40,000 pharmacies to provide vaccinations. The big picture: The U.S. government on Jan. 12 started to encourage states to open up vaccination eligibility to those 65 and older, and those 16 and older with certain medical conditions — or a third of the U.S. population. What they're saying: "Millions of Americans turn to their local pharmacies every day for their medicines, flu shots, and much more. And pharmacies are readily accessible in most communities with most Americans living within five miles of a pharmacy," Zients said. * "People should first make sure they meet their state's eligibility requirements for vaccinations and then check availability on their local pharmacy's website. Equity is at the core of how the centers for disease control is working with states to select pharmacy partners for this first phase," he added.Support safe, smart, sane journalism. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here.

  • Israel's vaccination rate slows as 70 per cent of over-60s receive jabs

    Israel has slowed down its vaccination programme after a decline in appointments, prompting some clinics to offer a jab to all citizens. Clalit, Israel's largest healthcare provider, allegedly had to dispose of 1,000 doses which expired due to a lack of patients, according to a report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. It is understood that the slowdown is partly due to Israel having already vaccinated a third of its population, while around 70 per cent of over-60s have received both doses. A spokesman for Clalit told the Telegraph that they were seeing a decrease in interest for vaccines and that younger age groups in particular seemed less eager to receive a dose. “We recommend that everyone who wants to be vaccinated comes and gets the vaccine,” they added. “We are able to vaccinate up to 120,000 people per day and are doing everything we can.” Ynet News, an Israeli news website, said the government may widen the criteria for a Covid vaccine to all age groups later this week. Currently, the over-35s and those with underlying health conditions are given priority. It came as new data from the Israeli health ministry revealed that just 0.3 per cent of patients reported side effects, such as a mild headache or chills, after receiving a vaccine. The ministry said that after the first dose, 6,575 of 2,768,200 Israelis reported side effects to their doctor, or just 0.24 per cent. The figure after the second dose was 0.26 per cent, or 3,592 of 1,377,827 people. Israeli health experts said mild side effects are also known to occur when receiving other types of vaccines, such as the seasonal flu jab.

  • White House tries to pacify Democratic senator upset at Kamala Harris doing media in his state without telling him

    Joe Manchin annoyed at vice president plugging Covid relief without his knowledge

  • Republicans give update after meeting with Biden about COVID-19 relief package

    GOP senators updated the press after meeting with President Biden to discuss a coronavirus relief package.

  • U.S. required to cut foreign aid to Myanmar after formally determining military takeover is a coup

    "After careful review of the facts and circumstance," the State Department has officially determined the military takeover in Myanmar was a coup d'état, a designation that requires the United States to cut its foreign aid to the country, CNN notes. After Myanmar's military, which ruled the country for decades until 2011, seized control and detained top government figures, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's ruling party, the Biden administration reportedly spent much of the day debating whether they should formally recognize the events as a coup. President Biden condemned the military's actions, but U.S. trade with Myanmar is small, while China's is significant, so there was seemingly a concern that an official designation would drive Myanmar even closer to Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Ultimately, though, the administration went through with it on Tuesday. A State Department official told CNN that Washington sends little foreign assistance to Myanmar's government, which, along with the military, "is already subject to a number of foreign assistance restrictions ... due to its human rights record," including allegations of genocide against the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group. The U.S. reportedly plans to continue its humanitarian programs that help the Rohingya, as well as other "democracy support programs that benefit civil society." Read more at CNN. More stories from theweek.comMeatballs, f-bombs, vote fraud conspiracies: A Trump Oval Office meeting so insane, Giuliani was 'the voice of reason'Rise of the Barstool conservativesManchin will support Democrats' reconciliation bill, allowing COVID relief to move forward without GOP

  • Kosovo, Israel establish diplomatic ties

    Kosovo and Israel formally established diplomatic ties on Monday in a ceremony held digitally due to the pandemic lockdown. Kosovo Foreign Minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla and her Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, held a virtual ceremony to sign the documents in their respective countries.

  • Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made at least $24 million in final year in White House

    Donald Trump’s eldest daughter made $1.4m from stake in Trump International Hotel

  • No German towels in sight: British tourists will have beaches to themselves after EU vaccine fiasco

    British holidaymakers can look forward to having the beaches of southern Europe to themselves this summer – without a German towel in sight – thanks to the European Union's vaccine fiasco, a leading German economist wrote gloomily in Spiegel magazine on Tuesday. "Germany will be stuck at home when other countries can travel again," Professor Moritz Schularick wrote. "The UK plans to vaccinate 75 per cent of its population by July… Even under optimistic assumptions, it will take Germany three months longer to achieve the same." There was anger and despondency in Germany on Tuesday after crisis talks between Angela Merkel and vaccine manufacturers made it clear that while Germany should be able to catch up by September, there is no way of ramping up production fast enough to make up the shortages in the next few months. "We stand by our commitment to offer every citizen a vaccination by the end of summer," Mrs Merkel said after Monday's video summit with the manufacturers, EU representatives and German regional leaders. But it was left to Jens Spahn, the health minister, to spell out the bitter truth. "We have hard weeks of shortages ahead of us until April," Mr Spahn told German television. "It can't be done any faster, not even with money."