Slain Agent Barry Lee Bush/fbi photo

It was an error that cost FBI agent Barry Bush his life on April 5, 2007.

A new detailed report of the friendly-fire shooting shows numerous mistakes under very confusing circumstances, the Leigh Valley Express-Times reports.

Bush, a veteran FBI agent, was supposed to perform surveillance on suspected bank robbers until a SWAT team took over.

But a command post ordered Bush to close in on one of the suspect’s cars, not knowing that SWAT was preparing to do the same thing.

Turns out, SWAT and Bush had separate written orders that were not communicated.

Mistaking Bush for one of the suspected robbers, a SWAT agent shot and killed the 52-year-old, the Express Times reported.

Steve Neavling

 A long-awaited autopsy has revealed that a U.S. Border Patrol agent died of a gunshot wound to the head by what federal authorities describe as friendly fire along the Arizona-Mexico border, CNN reports.

The report, released Wednesday, shows that Nicholas J. Ivie, 30, of Provo, Utah, died Oct. 2 by a “penetrating gunshot wound of the head involving the brain.”

Ivie was responding to an alarm at the border when he became involved in a shootout that also wounded another agent.

In a preliminary investigation, the FBI said evidence suggests the shooting was between Border Patrol agents who had become confused.

Border fence along Juarez-El Paso border/istock photo

A preliminary investigation into the friendly fire death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona found that agents didn’t lose radio contact before shots were fired, the Associated Press reports.

The sheriff’s report eased fears that a communication breakdown led to the fatal shooting, as many had speculated.

According to the AP, Agent Nicholas Ivie, 30, was responding to an underground sensor designed to detect illegal activity when two other agents to the south of him opened fire.

It was revealed that one of the agents who opened fire said she saw Ivie but drew her weapon when gunfire erupted.

The shooting remains under investigation.

istock photo

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been complaining for years about losing radio contact with each other because of so-called “dead spots.”

Despite those complaints, agents continue to lose radio communication, especially in remote mountainous areas similar to the one where friendly fire killed Agent Ivie this month, the Arizona Republic reports.

A source told the Republic that Ivie and two other agents who were responding from separate directions to an activated ground sensor when they lost radio contact in southeastern Arizona near the Mexican border.

It’s unclear whether dead spots contributed to the friendly fire.

“You get dead spots and you just don’t have any way to communicate with anybody,” Art Del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol union representing agents in the Tucson Sector, told the Republic.

Steve Neavling

 A Border Patrol agent killed by apparent friendly fire along the Mexico border in Arizona was remembered during a poignant funeral Monday, Reuters reports.

“Our best wishes and prayers continue for the other agents involved in the incident, that they may experience healing and peace. We honor all who serve in the Border Patrol, carrying out an extremely difficult task under harsh conditions,” the family of Nicholas Ivie, 30, said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

The death underscores the dangers facing Border Patrol agents, four of whom died in less than two years in Arizona, according to Reuters.

According to more recent investigations, Ivie believed he had encountered an armed smuggler and opened fire. Two other agents, believing the same thing, returned fire, Reuters reported.

Funeral services began after a horse-drawn carriage carried Ivie’s coffin through Sierra Vista to a Mormon church.

Steve Neavling

Federal investigators are trying to determine what went wrong when friendly fire resulted in the fatal shooting of the U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie, the USA Today reports.

A preliminary investigation suggests agents became disoriented while responding to a ground sensor near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the USA Today.

“There are strong preliminary indications that the death of Ivie and the injury to a second agent was the result of an accidental shooting incident involving only the agents,” the FBI said in a statement.

Officials originally believed other suspects were involved and fled to Mexico, a scenario that authorities say looks unlikely.

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Barry Lee Bush/fbi photo

The Barry Lee Bush that Joseph Douress remembers isn’t the FBI agent who investigated gangs in Newark and the U.S. Embassy bombing in Kenya.

Douress remembers a friend who would sit on a floor and stuff envelopes with invitations for a charity golf tournament, a neighbor who would plop himself on Douress’ couch to watch sports and have a few beers, a golfer perpetually frustrated by an incurable slice.

“Understand,” said Douress, who lives across the street from Bush’s widow, Karen, in Forks Township, “you’d never know Barry was in some cases the lead investigator in some of the biggest cases in this country’s history. … He was very well respected as an FBI agent. But around the neighborhood, he was Barry Bush.”

Thursday will mark five years since the 52-year-old Bush was fatally shot by friendly fire while pursuing bank robbers in Readington Township. Authorities say a fellow agent mistakenly shot Bush in confusion as agents descended on the robbers.

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