THREE PEOPLE SHOT AT FEDERAL PRISON

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A guard started a gunfight inside a federal prison
Wednesday as FBI agents tried to arrest him and five others accused of
trading alcohol and pot for sex with female inmates, officials said. When
the shooting was over, two people were dead and another was wounded.

The gunman and a Justice Department investigators were killed in the
exchange of gunfire, and a prison employee helping with the arrest was
hospitalized, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

The victims' names and the condition of the survivor were not immediately
released.

The six guards were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on charges alleging,
among other things, that they exchanged contraband such as alcohol, drugs
and money for sex with female inmates over a two-year period and used it to
buy inmates' silence.

When FBI agents and Justice Department investigators arrived at the center
Wednesday morning to arrest the six men, one of the indicted guards shot a
federal correctional institution officer, said FBI spokesman John Girgenti.
He said the officers fired back.

The agents were not expecting the prison guards to be armed, the law
enforcement official told the AP, though he could not immediately explain why.

The official said the guard fired with a personal weapon, wounding the
Bureau of Prisons employee who was assisting with the arrest. Agents from
the Justice Department's inspector general's office returned fire, killing
the guard, the official said, adding that a Justice Department agent was
killed in the exchange. It wasn't immediately clear who fired that fatal shot.

"The community is safe. The institution is in lockdown status," federal
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Carla Wilson said.

The detention center houses mostly men and is part of the Tallahassee
Federal Correctional Institution. A low security prison for female inmates
is next to the detention center. Together the men's and women's units total
1,445 inmates.

The indictment accused five of the six guards of having sexual contact with
eight inmates from September 2003 through September 2005 in exchange for
contraband, which could include alcohol, drugs and money.