AGENT THRIVED UNDERCOVER

FBI agent Sam Hicks, a Southmoreland High School graduate, was killed Wednesday while serving a drug warrant in Indiana Township.

Hicks, 33, of Richland, who led a team of agents in breaking down the front door and charging into the home, was shot and killed by the drug suspect's wife, who told police she thought he was an intruder.

"Special Agent Hicks made the ultimate sacrifice that any law enforcement officer makes for his country," said Michael A. Rodriguez, special agent-in-charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh field office. "He served with honor and bravery and will be greatly missed by his colleagues here in Pittsburgh and throughout the FBI. We are all grieving with this loss and Sam's memory will not be forgotten."

The target of the raid, Robert Korbe, 39, and his wife, Christina Korbe, 40, were taken into custody. Allegheny County Police detectives charged Christina Korbe with homicide for shooting Hicks. Her husband faces drug charges.

According to the criminal complaint:

Korbe and his wife were in bed when officers surrounded the house on Woods Run Road, knocked on the door shortly after 6 a.m. and announced themselves as police officers with a warrant for Robert Korbe's arrest.

The bearded Hicks watched through a door window as Robert Korbe ran through the house. Hicks ordered other officers to break down the door.

The officers, repeatedly announcing themselves as police, rammed the door a number of times before it broke. Hicks was the first one inside.

Other officers saw him make a quick left turn as he entered and then heard a single gunshot. Hicks shouted, "I'm hit!" and fell to the ground.

He was dragged outside by other officers, who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived.

Christina Korbe called 911 at 6:05 a.m. and told emergency dispatchers that she believed her home was being burglarized and that she shot an intruder with a .38 caliber handgun. She was still on the phone when officers ran upstairs and took her into custody.

She told police that after her husband ran downstairs, she grabbed a gun from the bedroom closet, stood at the top of the staircase, reached around the corner and fired a single shot down the stairs. She said she did not know that those who broke down the door were police officers.

Robert Korbe said when the front door window was broken, he knew it was the police, so he ran into the basement to retrieve cocaine from a file cabinet and flush it down the washtub. He then ran out the back door where he was arrested.

Hicks, who leaves behind a wife, Brooke, and 3-year-old son, Noah, was wearing a protective vest. He was taken to UPMC St. Margaret where he died at 6:52 a.m.

Police said the bullet struck Hicks underneath his collar bone and entered his chest cavity.

Hicks spent five years on the front line of the drug wars in Baltimore, often waiting undercover for deals on notorious street corners.

"He and his squad loved nothing more than crawling through some dirty, abandoned rowhouse at 4 a.m. and watching everything that happened on a drug corner," said Baltimore City Police Sgt. Steve Hohman, who worked with Hicks in the Organized Crime Division, where he served until February 2007. The two men are related through marriage.

Hicks, 33, was an excellent investigator, but loved undercover work, surveillance and "street rips" -- arresting dealers and seizing drugs from street corners, Hohman said.

Their two squads had a friendly rivalry, with Hohman's squad relying on informants and interrogations and Hicks' squad gathering information from surveillance.

"He wasn't one of those guys happy to make detective just for their resume," Hohman said. "He was out there on the street working, every day."

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said: "The loss of Sam Hicks is a tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Sam's family and the members of the Pittsburgh field office."

The Westmoreland County native wrote in his yearbook at Southmoreland High School, where he graduated in 1993, that he planned a career in law enforcement. The FBI said he had worked as a teacher.

Hicks joined the Baltimore City Police Department in June 2002, but started applying to the FBI not long after being transferred from patrol in Baltimore's Southwestern District to the Organized Crime Division in July 2005, which conducts narcotics investigations, Baltimore police said.

The FBI hired Hicks in March 2007 and transferred him to the Pittsburgh office that August.

Hicks generally was a "quiet, shy" person, although he was close enough to other officers in Baltimore that he took part in at least four of their weddings in the past year, Hohman said.

Hicks' wife, Brooke, is a sister to Hohman's sister-in-law, so the two officers often met at family gatherings, where Hohman's 1-year-old daughter would play with Hicks' 3-year-old son, Noah.

"The family got frustrated buying him shirts and stuff for Christmas. He'd cut the sleeves off right away, since that's the way he'd wear them on the street," Hohman said.

Hicks met his wife on a vacation in Ocean City, Md., when they were both teachers, Hohman said. Brooke's family in Baltimore visited them frequently in Pennsylvania, where she had stopped teaching to care for Noah, he said. She recently went back to work in day care.

Several cars lined the street in front of the couple's Richland home yesterday, but family and friends declined to speak with reporters.

Charlotte Mowry of Mt. Pleasant, Hicks' great-aunt, said the fallen agent, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, always wanted a career in law enforcement.

"He was very bright, with a wonderful mind. To me, this is such a waste of brain power for him to be killed like that," Mowry said.

She said that Hicks was a dedicated husband and father and that the shooting has "taken a great toll" on his elderly grandparents in Georgia, who are ill.

"This was my sister's oldest grandson. This is an absolute shock to her. She's 85, and she isn't doing well at all."

Mowry said Hicks' mother, Charlotte Carrabotta, lives in Somerset County. Carrabotta did not return a call to her home yesterday.

Robert Knipple, executive director of external relations at Pitt-Johnstown, said Hicks lived in Champion before attending college. After he moved onto campus, he was a member of the Acacia fraternity.

Hicks graduated May 1, 1999, earning a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, Knipple said.

Retired history teacher Elaine Prudente of Connellsville taught Hicks in high school at Alverton.

"He was a good student, a nice kid," Prudente said. "This is so upsetting."

While at Southmoreland, Hicks played on the Scotties tennis team, served as historian for the student council and was a member of the Alpha Club, an organization for gifted students, according to his senior yearbook.

Michael Polechko, Southmoreland High School teacher, taught Hicks 10th-grade biology.

"He was a good student, happy. He always had a smile on his face. He had a lot of friends. He was on the wrestling team his sophomore year. He wrestled for me for two years. His sophomore year was his first. He was a smallish kid, but showed courage despite his size. He was able to develop into a wrestler mentally and physically. He was the kind of student teachers want -- friendly and a hard worker."