Agents shoot EPA fugitive

keysnews.com ^ | 3/11/2009 | Rob Busweiler

[jsh3180]

Authorities shot a federal fugitive from Utah Tuesday morning, saying he pointed an assault rifle at them when they went to a Marathon trailer to arrest him on a tip.

Larkin Baggett, 53, was in unknown condition Tuesday night at a Miami hospital where he was flown.

No law enforcement officers were injured in the gunfire. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the shooting, would not release details about the incident, such as how many bullets hit Baggett, from what kind of gun, and which officers from which agencies shot him.

"It sounded like fireworks were going off," said a nearby resident, who identified himself only as Chris B. "There were a dozen or so pops."

Authorities considered Baggett to be armed and dangerous because of the firepower he had in his car -- assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition -- when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrested him on pollution-related crimes in Utah in 2007.

"We were concerned about the number of weapons," said Melodie Rydalch of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah. The agency will begin working with Florida authorities to determine Baggett's future. "That will have to be sorted out."

EPA agents and sheriff's deputies said Baggett pointed a weapon at them soon after they saw him leave an 11th Street trailer, located in the middle of a fairly empty storage yard near the former Turn Key Marina site, sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.

Property owner Jim Pierce said he wasn't aware anyone had been staying there. Another property owner, who Pierce said manages the yard, declined to comment to The Citizen.

Authorities said Baggett may have been in the area for several weeks.

Baggett, owner and operator of Chemical Consultants Inc., was indicted on four felony counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and two felony counts of violating the Clean Water Act, including illegally treating and disposing of hazardous waste and illegally discharging acidic chemical wastes into a sewer system. He was released from federal custody pending his June 2008 trial. Arrest warrants were issued when he fled prosecution.

Baggett was one of the first 23 fugitives the EPA featured on a wanted list it developed for the first time last year. His wanted poster is available at http://www.epa.gov/fugitives.

EPA agents had met with local authorities to plan Baggett's capture, according to a statement the agency released Tuesday.

After the shoot-out, an ambulance took Baggett to the Seven Mile Bridge, where the sheriff's Trauma Star helicopter landed to take him to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, accompanied by a law enforcement officer, Herrin said.

Traffic was stopped on the bridge during the transfer. The incident caused a stir in Marathon, as more than a dozen emergency vehicles converged on the scene.

"I thought my restaurant was burning down," said Brett Andresion, owner of a nearby eatery, Rum Bums Bar & Grill on U.S. 1 just south of 11th Street.

rbusweiler@keysnews.com

[jsh3180]

Damn, I was stuck in traffic on the 7 Mile Bridge yesterday morning while headed to Marathon on business, now I see why all the police and traffic holdup. A crazed environmental fugitive, armed and dangerous no less, in my own vincinity. Never knew until this morning that the EPA has an actual web page of fugitives from environmental crime! http://www.epa.gov/fugitives

[cc2k]

Wow, those are some bad dudes on that EPA fugitives website.

Smuggling and selling R-12, importing automobiles that don't meet emissions standards. Those guys deserve to be shot on site. </sarcasm>

[Yosemitest]

When you see an EPA Agent, do the three S's.
Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up!

A word for our idiots in charge....

Obama is my Shepard, I shall not want.
He leadeth me beside the still factories.
He restoreth my faith in the Republican Party.
He guideth me in the path of unemployment.
Yea, though I walk thru the Valley of the Bread Line,
I shall not go hungry.
Obama has anointed my income with taxes.
My expenses runeth over my income.
Surely, poverty and hard living will follow me
all the days of his term.
From hence forth,
we will live all the days of our lives
In a rented home with an overseas landlord.
But I am glad I am an American, I am glad that I am free.
But I wish I were a dog and Obama was a tree.

[Eye of Unk]

Not before the dogs got him.

[Right Wing Assault]

Shoot those polluters! Let’s get the litterers, too. Hire some illegals to hunt them down. Train some snipers.

[IbJensen]

Welcome to Nazi, Nutsy USA where, among the myriad of stupid governmental agencies, we have the EPA!

[Stonewall Jackson]

Careful. Somebody in Washington might hear you and think that is a wonderful idea. ;-)

[Old_Grouch]

This is beyond scary. The EPA, the next BATFE!

[Old_Grouch]

My husband says this bunch has ads on local radio for an anonymous tip line, to report people you see illegally dumping or polluting. Anonymous! And at the end of the ad it says something like “Next time you see an EPA agent driving down the road, wave to them!” As in, they are helping us all have a clean earth.

Total propaganda!

[grey_whiskers]

EPA fugitive??? WTF???

[TexasCajun]

It's a damn good think the fugitive didn't have a compound full of women & children.

We know how Democrats handle that type of situation.

[lbama]

amazing! EPA Fugitives. A look at the list show some to be wanted for importing “ozone depleting material”. Or freon. We are just about finished as a country.

[seemoAR]

Very good.

[TheOldLady]

So EPA violations are capital offences and require deadly force? These sick bastids don’t know when to walk away from a situation. Instead, they injure/kill their suspect for what is not that serious a crime given that we’ve cleaned up 98% of our messes and have the cleanest country on earth. They want to spend our money until we are at 100% regardless the lives and treasure lost and the fact that it’s impossible. Again, sick bastids.

Dear God, give us a strong leader who will disband this agency and all others like it.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Welcome to Nazi, Nutsy USA where, among the myriad of stupid governmental agencies, we have the EPA!"

Our little town was subjected to this Green Goosestepping Nazis a few years back.

They rolled in and declared our sewage system was an extreme environmental hazard and people would die if we did not install an all new system,

This extreme hazard had been operating for over 50 years and just 18 months prior was passed by the EPA, but they changed regulations and rolled in on us. They have never went away.

Around here we know just what E.P.A. stands for.

Ever
Persistent
A-holes

[mikey_hates_everything]

How come in environmental violations, the company owner is charged with felonies yet when a company steals billions from people, not only is no one held responsible, the company gets a bailout?

[TexasRepublic]

I am against the wanton disregard for the environment, but EPA Nazis scare me much more.