An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent was fatally shot on Thursday by another IRS agent during a training exercise in Arizona, officials said. The shooting was reportedly an accident.
Charlotte M. Dennis, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division, told CBS 5 the “incident” involved IRS special agents. The injured agent was transported to HonorHealth Deer Valley Medical Center, where the agent later died.
“Our concern today is for the agent and their family,” Dennis said.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the deadly shooting took place at the Federal Correctional Institution Phoenix Firing Range, where multiple federal agencies were working at the time, Fox News reported.
The FBI’s Phoenix field office is investigating the shooting.
“The FBI’s investigation will be methodical and thorough to address every element of the incident,” an emailed statement said. Those findings will then be turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District of Arizona) for review.
A job posting on the IRS’ website shows the agency is hiring armed special agents who are willing to use “deadly force” and conduct “surveillance” in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
The special agents will be part of the Criminal Investigation Division, described as the agency’s “law enforcement” branch, which is designed to combine “accounting skills with law enforcement skills to investigate financial crimes.”
The “major duties” of the job include a willingness to participate in “dangerous assignments” and “life-threatening situations.”
“Carry a firearm; must be prepared to protect him/herself or others from physical attacks at any time and without warning and use firearms in life-threatening situations; must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force,” the IRS website’s job description states.
USAJOBS.gov expands on the job’s duties, which include conducting or participating in “surveillance, armed escorts, dignitary protection, undercover operations, execution of search and arrest warrants, seizures, etc.”
