FBI agents fatally shoot suspect tied to Philly kidnapping during raid on N.J. home

FBI agents investigating a Philadelphia kidnapping fatally shot a suspect Wednesday morning while conducting a raid on a North Jersey apartment, law enforcement officials said.

Investigators didn’t identify the suspect or detail the circumstances behind the shooting.

The abduction investigation that drew them to the complex in Leonia, N.J., originated in Northeast Philadelphia, where a 17-year-old boy was reported missing this week after he didn’t return home from work, said Capt. Mark Burgmann of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, which initially led the kidnapping case.

Sources familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to publicly discuss it said the teen was abducted from the Acme store on Solly Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard on Monday night and that his father received a ransom demand.

Police enlisted the assistance of the FBI, which tracked the boy to the New Jersey apartment Wednesday morning.

Doreen Holder, a spokesperson for the bureau’s Newark office, said agents confronted one of the suspects there before opening fire. The kidnapping victim was rescued from the apartment unharmed, taken to a local hospital, and released.

The bureau did not respond to questions about whether that suspect was armed, whether others were inside the apartment at the time, or whether any arrests had been made in connection with the case.

“There are no threats to the community,” Holder said in a statement. “Further information will be released as it becomes available.”

An internal probe by FBI officials in Washington has been opened into the shooting, the bureau said in a statement. The kidnapping remains under investigation by the FBI’s Philadelphia field office.