#FBI holds memorial services for slain agents fatally shot while serving warrant

The FBI is holding two memorial services for slain FBI Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger this weekend after they were shot and killed while serving a warrant in a child pornography case Tuesday. 

Schwartzenberger, 43, was honored at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Saturday afternoon, while Alfin, 36, will be honored Sunday. 

The funeral procession arrived at the stadium just before 2 p.m. with first responders honoring the motorcade along the way, a video by WTVJ shows. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency lost “two warriors who took on one of the hardest jobs in the FBI: crimes against children.”

“[Schwartzenberger] led a life of sheer determination, dedication, and courage, of someone who really loved her work and the people she worked with, and of a woman who loved her family even more,” Wray said at the memorial service. 

She joined the FBI in 2005 and became the first and only female SWAT team member in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2007. She transferred to Miami in 2010 to join the violent crimes against children squad. 

“It was here, in Miami, that she found her true calling—keeping kids safe. Laura chose to be part of a team that spends their days in darkness, confronting the very worst parts of humanity,” Wray said. “It’s a job with high stress, high emotional toll, and high burnout. But Laura never stopped.”

One of Schwartzenberger’s friends, Brenda Chavez called her a “true protector of those she loved and cared for.”

“She tackled everything at full speed, never slowing down, even as she was crossing the finish line,” Chavez said at the memorial service.

“To our dear friend, a loving wife, a doting mother, an inspirational sister, an affectionate daughter that would make any parent proud, and to the biggest bad*** I know, Laura, you blessed the life of each and every person you touched.”

Family, friends, and colleagues will gather Sunday in the same location to honor the life of FBI Special Agent Daniel Alfin, who was killed while serving a warrant with Schwartzenberger. 

Alfin was in the FBI for more than a decade and worked crimes against children cases for the past six years. 

In 2017, he was part of the team that brought down what was believed to be the largest child pornography website in the world, leading to the identification or rescue of 296 sexually abused children and the arrest of 548 perpetrators worldwide. 

“It’s the same with any criminal violation: As they get smarter, we adapt, we find them,” Alfin said in 2017. “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.”