Indiana Detective on U.S. Task Force Is Fatally Shot, F.B.I. Says

A police detective in Indiana who worked on a Federal Bureau of Investigation task force was “ambushed” and fatally shot Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. said in a statement.

Officials identified the detective as Greg Ferency, a 30-year veteran of the Police Department in the city of Terre Haute, about 77 miles west of Indianapolis, and a member of the F.B.I. task force since 2010.

Officials provided few details Wednesday evening about what had taken place. Christine Bavender, the F.B.I. spokeswoman, said the shooting had occurred near the federal building in downtown Terre Haute around 2:15 p.m. An F.B.I. agent wounded a man who was suspected in the shooting. The man was in custody and receiving medical attention for his injury, Ms. Bavender said.

Sgt. Ryan Adamson of the Terre Haute Police Department wrote on Twitter that Detective Ferency “was killed in the line of duty today.” The department did not return an email message seeking further details on Wednesday evening.

Gov. Eric Holcomb expressed his condolences and called the shooting “tragic” and “senseless.” Senator Mike Braun wrote on Twitter that Detective Ferency had been “doing what he has done for 30 years: selflessly protecting and serving his community.”

Ms. Bavender said that officials would hold a news conference on Thursday morning where they would provide additional information about the shooting.

“We lost a true public servant today,” the Indiana State Police superintendent, Douglas G. Carter, said in a brief news conference on Wednesday afternoon. He went on to say that attacks on law enforcement officers were becoming more common and that “it’s not a good time to be a police officer in America.”

So far this year, 161 law enforcement officials have been killed in the line of duty, 29 of them by gunfire, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit organization that tracks the data. In 2020, 369 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, 45 of them by intentional gunfire, it said.