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[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2011/02/17/wv.three.us.marshals.shot.wdtv[/video]
-- A deputy U.S. marshal who had been with the service for just over a year was fatally shot while serving an arrest warrant Wednesday morning in West Virginia, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, 24, of Bridgeport, W.Va., was one of three deputies hit by a shotgun blast as they entered a residence in Elkins at about 8:30 a.m., said spokesman Jeff Carter. Hotsinpiller was airlifted to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, about 70 miles away, where he died, the Marshals Service said.
Hotsinpiller had been serving with the Northern District of West Virginia office in Clarksburg since his graduation from the U.S. Marshals Academy, Carter said.
The deputies, along with members of the West Virginia State Police and the Mountain State Fugitive Task Force, were serving an arrest warrant on Charles E. Smith, 50, who was wanted on a charge related to possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, as well as a felon in possession of a firearm charge, Carter said.
Smith and the officers exchanged fire after the initial shot, and Smith was killed, Carter said.
One deputy "continues to recover from his injuries," and the third has been treated at a nearby hospital and released, Carter added. The identities of the wounded deputies were not released.
"Every day, families of law enforcement officers live with the fact that their loved one may not return home following a shift of work, said Col. T.S. Pack, superintendent of the West Virginia State Police. "Today, we are experiencing that sad reality here in West Virginia."
The state police and the FBI and are investigating the shooting, Carter said.
The last U.S. marshal to die from gunfire occurred in Las Vegas on January 4, 2010, while the last marshal's death in the line of duty took place in Idaho nearly two decades earlier.
