Florida suspect used doorbell camera to monitor approaching FBI agents: report
The suspect killed in Sunrise, Fla., used a doorbell camera to monitor approaching FBI agents who came to serve a federal warrant, using an assault-style weapon to fire through the unopened door, law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald.
The FBI’s child pornography case against suspect David Lee Huber remains largely under wraps Thursday -- two days after he allegedly peered through a doorbell camera and fired an assault-style weapon through the closed door of his apartment in South Florida, killing two FBI agents coming to serve a federal warrant and wounding three others.
Huber, who investigators believe then turned the gun on himself and died by suicide following the standoff, was the subject of a "run of the mill" child pornography case, an unnamed law enforcement official told the Miami Herald. That meant he was suspected of trading images of underage children engaging in sex, not the more severe crime of manufacturing and distributing illegal graphic images.
The full extent of Huber’s online activities remains under investigation, and the FBI is evaluating a hard drive from Huber’s computer and other evidence recovered after the deadly raid Tuesday, the source told the Herald. The federal warrant granting agents permission to search the address remains sealed, and the FBI has publicly released few details about the case against Huber and what happened during the raid.
SUSPECT IN DEADLY FLORIDA FBI SHOOTING IDENTIFIED AS DAVID LE HUBER, SOURCES CONFIRM
Florida court records show Huber with only minor traffic violations. The 55-year-old had no listing as a sex offender and no Florida prison record. Records show he owned computer consulting businesses from 2008 until last year. He was licensed as a commercial pilot in 1994.
Broward County records show he was divorced in 2016. Fox News’ efforts to contact his ex-wife and two sons have been unsuccessful.
An FBI forensics team was being flown in from Washington, D.C., and the property and gated community in Sunrise, Fla., where the raid occurred remained cordoned off Wednesday.
FBI AGENTS KILLED IN FLORIDA: SUSPECT USED DOORBELL CAM, FIRED ASSAULT RIFEL THROUGH CLOSED DOOR
David Lee Huber (Florida Department of Motor Vehicle)
FBI Miami Special Agent Mike Leverock told the Herald "an inspection team" from Washington, D.C., "is reviewing the incident" and gathering forensic evidence at Huber’s apartment.
FBI Director Christopher Wray also flew into South Florida Wednesday to tour the shooting scene. He then headed to the bureau’s field office in Miramar to meet with the families of the agents killed and members of the child pornography task force, as well as with U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan, and her first assistant, prosecutor Tony Gonzalez, the Herald reported.
The FBI identified the two agents killed Tuesday as Laura Schwartzenberger and Daniel Alfin.
On Wednesday, the bureau said two FBI agents wounded had been released from Broward Medical Health Center. A third agent wounded had been treated at the scene and did not require hospitalization.
FBI AGENTS HURT IN DEADLY AMBUSH RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
Schwartzenberger, 43, and an agent for 15 years was part of Rockway Middle School's law studies magnet program, teaching children about the internet's dangers, including sexual exploitation and cyberbullying. She was married and had two children.
Alfin, 36, and an agent for almost 13 years was married with one child and made headlines seven years ago when he led a team that took down a Naples, Fla., man who was the lead administrator of Playpen, the world’s largest-known child pornography website.
Steven Chase had created the website on Tor, an open network on the internet where users could communicate anonymously through "hidden service" websites. Playpen had more than 150,000 users worldwide. Members uploaded and viewed tens of thousands of graphic images of young victims, categorized by age, sex and type of sexual activity involved. The FBI launched an investigation in 2014 after Playpen’s IP address was accidentally revealed.
After Chase’s arrest in 2015, the FBI kept the website operating for two weeks to identify other users, hiding malware in the images to discover their IP addresses, the Associated Press reported. From that effort, investigators sent more than 1,000 leads to FBI field offices across the country and thousands more to overseas law enforcement agencies.
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According to the FBI, 350 arrests were made in the U.S. and 548 internationally, including 25 producers of child pornography and 51 abusers. The operation identified or rescued 55 American children who were sexually abused and 296 internationally. Chase got 30 years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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