Flags at half-staff, memorials planned for slain FBI agents
Laura Schwartzenberger and Daniel Alfin, the FBI special agents who died in Tuesday’s shooting, will be memorialized this weekend with invite-only events at Hard Rock Stadium, as well as processions making their way across South Florida’s roadways.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the Broward County Courthouse, the City Hall of Parkland and Weston and at the State Capitol through the weekend.
Schwartzenberger, 43, will be memorialized in a ceremony on Saturday afternoon, and Alfin, 36, on Sunday afternoon, at the stadium in Miami Gardens.
Due to COVID19 restrictions, the services will be limited to invitation only and are closed to the public.
A law enforcement procession for Schwartzenberger can be viewed beginning at 1 p.m. at the entrance to the Sawgrass Expressway at University Drive. The procession will travel south on Florida’s Turnpike and end at Hard Rock Stadium for the 2 p.m. event.
Alfin’s memorial will start at 2 p.m. A procession in his honor will travel south on North 64th Avenue to Pines Boulevard in Hollywood before getting on Florida’s Turnpike and ending at Hard Rock Stadium.
Both agents were killed on Tuesday while serving a warrant, related to crimes against children, at the Water Terrace Apartments in Sunrise. The gunman, David Lee Huber, 55, then killed himself.
On Wednesday, Schwartzenberger’s close friends remembered her as a dedicated mother, agent and gym partner. Family and friends of Alfin’s said he was a natural computer whiz who used his online sleuthing skills for good.
He led an investigation into a website called Playpen, believed to be the largest child pornography website on the dark web. His work broke legal ground, yielded a massive number of arrests and resulted in the rescue of hundreds of children.
Born in New York, he joined the FBI in 2009, serving first in the Albany, N.Y., office. He has worked for the FBI’s Miami office since 2017. He leaves behind a spouse and one child.
A GoFundMe page created in Schwartzenberger’s honor has raised over $70,000.
She joined the FBI in 2005 and worked out of a field office in Albuquerque before moving to the Miami office in 2010. For the past seven years she investigated crimes against children.
She leaves behind a husband and two young boys.