PHOENIX -- A former FBI agent fired for fatally shooting another agent by mistake two years ago blames a faulty arrest plan for the death and charges his superiors with a cover-up to protect senior agents, it was reported.
In copyright story Sunday in The Arizona Republic, Douglas Harada discussed his role in the Oct. 4, 1985, shooting of fellow agent Robin Ahrens during the arrest of Nevada fugitive Kenneth Donald Barrett at a west Phoenix apartment complex.
Ahrens was the first agent to be killed by fellow FBI agents and the first female agent killed in the line of duty. She was shot by Harada and Thomas Fernandez after they apparently mistook her for an accomplice of Barrett. Harada and Fernandez were later fired.
'I was trained to survive as an officer, but I was never trained to survive the administrative nightmare the FBI put me through,' said Harada, now a police officer in a Midwestern city. He granted the interview on the condition that the city where he is working not be identified.
Harada claimed that as part of the cover-up, he was denied the right given to other agents to change their affidavits, and that the FBI took some of his sworn statements out of context to portray him as a 'panicked rookie.'
'It was a one-sided investigation,' he said, adding that he believes he and Fernandez were 'set up' by the FBI.
Harada described Ahrens as a poorly trained and 'impulsive agent' who put herself in danger, and also criticized the arrest plan that night.
He said the plan needlessly placed some agents in a 'kill zone' and was confused by a new surveillance van that no one knew how to use, and by Ahrens' inexperience.
Ahrens, who had graduated from the FBI Academy the previous July, had originally been assigned to try to identify Barrett if he left his apartment.
'I don't know how they expected her to do that,' Harada said. 'She wasn't experienced enough to be able to look at a picture and look at somebody and realize it is the same person.'
After several minutes of confused action during which Barrett was subdued, a person with a gun who turned out to be Ahrens, was seen running between buildings. A warning to stop went unheeded.
'She had plenty of time to stop,' Harada said, contrary to an FBI report. 'She should never have come tearing around the corridor like that without going for cover. She didn't have enough training to know that.'
As Harada started to squeeze the trigger, he said he heard another gun go off. There was a second shot, but Harada could not determine where that came from. He said Fernandez told him he did not shoot first.
Harada said he believes the two other shots came from an agent behind him, whom he would not identify.
According to internal documents that the newspaper said the FBI tried to keep secret, one agent involved in the incident was recommended for unspecified censure, probation and suspension, while Richard Swenson, who supervised the operation, received unspecified administrative disciplinary action for using inexperienced agents and conceiving a 'faulty arrest plan.'
Herbert Hawkins Jr., the special agent in charge in Phoenix, received a letter of reprimand for being out of touch with his agents for 4 hours the night Ahrens died.
