NEW YORK (CNN) -- Preliminary information suggests an FBI agent killed Thursday during a shootout with three bank-robbery suspects in New Jersey may have been fatally wounded when another agent's weapon accidentally fired, the bureau said in a statement.
Barry Lee Bush, 52, a special agent assigned to the Newark, New Jersey FBI office, died after the shootout in Readington, New Jersey. Bush was wounded during a "dynamic arrest situation," the FBI said.
"Special Agent Bush and his team were in pursuit of heavily armed serial bank robbers who are believed to be responsible for four bank robberies," according to a statement from the bureau. "In two of those robberies, the suspects, armed with assault weapons, fired rounds while inside the bank."
As in any case of a shooting involving an agent, a team of investigators from the FBI's Inspection Division would conduct a review, the FBI said, and will coordinate their efforts with state and local authorities in New Jersey.
One person was still being sought, the FBI said.
The shootout occurred in a parking lot across the street from a PNC Bank branch in Readington, about 45 miles outside New York.
Earlier, a law enforcement official told CNN two people were in custody while a third was being sought. Close to 100 officers from several agencies were participating in the search for the remaining robbery suspect, New Jersey State Police Capt. Al Della Fave said.
The suspect was described as a 6-foot-2 male who is missing a shoe. Afterward, authorities closed U.S. Route 22, a major artery in front of the bank, and a mass of FBI agents and police flooded the scene.
Bush, 52, joined the FBI in 1987 in Kansas City, Missouri and transferred to Newark in 1991, the FBI said. He is survived by his wife and two children.
:banghead:
