Two special agents from FBI\u2019s elite Hostage Rescue Team have been killed in a training accident, the agency said. It doubles the number of losses during training the team has had in the three decades of its existence.<\/p>\n
Special agents Christopher Lorek, 41, and Stephen Shaw, 40 died
\nin off the coast of Virginia Beach area on Friday, the FBI said
\nSunday. The bureau offered few details of the deaths. The case
\nremains under investigation.<\/p>\n
Local TV station WAVY quoted a Navy spokesman as saying that the
\naccident happened aboard a Military Sealift Command ship that the
\nFBI had leased for training.<\/p>\n
Both agents were brought by helicopter Friday to Sentara Norfolk
\nGeneral Hospital, the leading trauma center for the area, a
\nspokesman for Sentara Healthcare said. He offered no details on
\ntheir treatment or the injuries they sustained.<\/p>\n
An investigator in the Virginia medical examiner\u2019s office for
\nthe Tidewater District, where the accident happened, said the cause
\nof death may not be obtained before Monday.<\/p>\n
“We mourn the loss of two brave and courageous men,”<\/i> FBI
\nDirector Robert S. Mueller III said in a statement. “Like all
\nwho serve on the Hostage Rescue Team, they accept the highest risk
\neach and every day, when training and on operational missions, to
\nkeep our nation safe. Our hearts are with their wives, children,
\nand other loved ones who feel their loss most deeply. And they will
\nalways be part of the FBI Family.”<\/i><\/p>\n
Lorek joined the FBI in 1996, the bureau said. He is survived by
\nhis wife and two daughters, aged 11 and eight. Shaw has been with
\nthe FBI since 2005. He is survived by his wife, a three-year-old
\ndaughter and a one-year-old son.<\/p>\n
The deaths bring to at least four the number of fatalities in
\nthe elite counterterrorism team during training since its creation
\nin 1983 in preparation for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In
\nApril 1986, James K. McAllister died after falling from a
\nhelicopter and in December 2006, Gregory J. Rahoi was accidentally
\nshot and killed during a live-fire training exercise.<\/p>\n
The Hostage Rescue Team is part of the Critical Incident
\nResponse Group based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and
\nis prepared to respond to the \u201cmost complex and urgent FBI cases in
\nthe United States and abroad,\u201d the bureau\u2019s website says. Over the
\nthree decades it has participated in hostage situations more than
\n800 times, in the US and elsewhere.<\/p>\n