David Lee Huber: The Sunrise FBI Shooting and Its Aftermath

David Lee Huber was a 55-year-old computer consultant in Sunrise, Florida, who on February 2, 2021, opened fire on FBI agents attempting to serve a federal search warrant at his apartment, killing Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger and wounding three others before killing himself. The agents had come to his door as part of an investigation into possession of child sexual abuse material.¹ It was one of the deadliest days for the FBI in decades.²

What Happened That Morning in Sunrise

Just after 6 a.m., a team of agents from the FBI’s Miami Field Office arrived at the Water Terrace apartment complex on Nob Hill Road in Sunrise, a suburb in Broward County. They carried a federal court-ordered search warrant tied to an investigation of violent crimes against children.³

Huber lived in a ground-floor unit. Investigators later concluded he likely used a doorbell security camera to watch the agents approach in the pre-dawn dark.⁴ Before the warrant could be executed, he opened fire through the door and windows with an assault-style rifle, leaving large exit holes in the door.⁵

Alfin and Schwartzenberger were killed in the ambush. Three other agents were wounded; two required hospitalization.⁶ Huber barricaded himself inside as the scene turned into a standoff. Residents called 911 describing a “barrage of bullets”; one caller told dispatchers, “You guys need to send a SWAT team over here.”⁷ By roughly 9 a.m., authorities reported the scene safe. Huber had been wounded during the exchange of gunfire and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the apartment.⁸

Why the FBI Was at His Door

The Miami Field Office had been investigating Huber for possession of child sexual abuse material, commonly called child pornography. The warrant the agents were serving that morning was a standard federal search warrant tied to that investigation.¹

Huber had no prior federal or Florida criminal record. Public records showed nothing more serious than a few traffic infractions, and he had no known history of sex crimes.⁹¹⁰

Who David Lee Huber Was

Huber was born in Louisiana and moved to Broward County in 1994 to attend college. He had also lived in New York, Colorado, and Atlanta before settling in South Florida.⁹ He spent decades working with computers as a systems analyst and engineer, and in the early 2000s he registered two technology businesses: Huber Computer Consulting and Computer Troubleshooters 0512 Inc.¹¹ The FAA issued him a commercial pilot’s certificate in 1994 for single- and multi-engine aircraft.¹⁰

He married around 2000 and lived with his wife and children in Pembroke Pines, where the couple co-founded a home-based computer troubleshooting business in 2004 that lasted less than two years. They separated in 2009 and divorced in 2016. Huber was survived by two sons.¹¹

Warning Signs From Former Colleagues

Christian Suarez, who worked with Huber at two firms over several years, described him as a “good computer engineer” who was “not real personable” and “always down to the facts.”¹² Suarez said Huber had disclosed suffering from bipolar and manic depressive disorders and expressed anxiety about getting medication to “keep him cool.”

In the fall of 2016, while working at a Broward County computer firm, Huber blew up during an office conversation about health care and the presidential election. He told Suarez, “Let’s take it outside,” and stormed out. A company executive later told him not to return. Suarez said Huber “pleaded for another chance” while “weeping hysterically” but was fired. After the firing, colleagues feared he would come back with a gun; the company organized escorts to the parking lot, and some employees were asked to bring their own firearms to work for protection.¹²

At the Apartment Complex

Neighbors at Water Terrace described Huber as “awkward,” “anti-social,” and “very weird,” and as a loner who generally did not speak to anyone.¹¹¹³ After the shooting, one neighbor said that an exterminator had claimed Huber previously pointed a gun at him after entering the unit for routine maintenance. Police were unable to confirm the account.¹⁰

The Agents He Killed

Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger was 43. Born July 29, 1977, she joined the FBI in December 2005 and spent more than 15 years with the bureau working investigations related to crimes against children.¹⁴

Special Agent Daniel Alfin was 36. A New York native, he joined the FBI in 2009, worked in the Albany field office, and moved to the bureau’s Crimes Against Children Unit at headquarters in 2014 before transferring to Miami in 2017.¹⁵ He led Operation Pacifier, a global investigation of the dark-web child exploitation site Playpen that resulted in roughly 900 arrests and the rescue of hundreds of children, work for which his team received the FBI Director’s Award. He lived in Weston and was survived by his wife and a child.¹⁶

Separate memorial services were held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on February 6 and 7, 2021. FBI Director Christopher Wray delivered both eulogies and presented the American flags from the caskets to the agents’ families.¹⁷

What Changed After the Shooting

No FBI agent had been killed in the line of duty since 2008, and the Sunrise ambush drew immediate comparisons to a 1986 shootout in Pinecrest that also left two agents dead.² The bureau did not respond with the kind of sweeping tactical overhaul that followed 1986. A year after the shooting, George Piro, the FBI special agent in charge in Miami, said SWAT backup had not been made mandatory for serving search warrants and that the bureau continued to evaluate tactical needs case by case. “We haven’t overhauled anything that we don’t normally do,” Piro said, adding that it was “unrealistic to use SWAT in every arrest and search.”¹⁸

The role of a doorbell camera in giving Huber advance warning did prompt broader conversation within law enforcement about how home surveillance technology is changing the risks of warrant service.¹⁹

1
Miami Herald. FBI Shooting Suspect Investigated for Child Sexual Abuse Material
2
New York Times. 2 FBI Agents Are Killed and 3 Are Wounded in Shooting in Florida
3
NBC News. Shooting at Florida Home as FBI Agents Serve Warrant
4
CBS News Miami. FBI Shooting Deaths, Risk of Home Surveillance Cameras
5
Police1. Gunman Ambushed Slain FBI Agents With Doorbell Camera, Police Say
6
NPR. 2 FBI Agents Are Killed, 3 Others Wounded in Raid in Sunrise, Fla.
7
CBS12. 911 Calls Released in Deadly FBI Shooting in Sunrise
8
Miami Herald. FBI Shooting Suspect Killed Himself After Gun Battle
9
NBC Miami. Suspect Identified in Sunrise Raid That Left 2 FBI Agents Dead
10
New York Post. David Lee Huber Sought on Run-of-the-Mill FBI Search Warrant
11
Miami Herald. What We Know About the Suspect in the Sunrise FBI Shooting
12
NBC Miami. Ex-Colleagues of Man Who Killed FBI Agents Feared Revenge
13
Local 10 News. Woman Who Lived Above FBI Killer Says There Were Instant Red Flags
14
FBI. Laura Schwartzenberger – Wall of Honor
15
FBI. Remembering Special Agent Daniel Alfin
16
Orlando Sentinel. Daniel Alfin, FBI Agent, Investigated Huge Child Pornography Operation
17
FBI. Honoring Fallen Special Agents Laura Schwartzenberger and Daniel Alfin
18
Mid-Florida Newspapers. A Year Later, FBI Still Reviewing How Ambush Killed 2 Agents
19
NBC Miami. Sunrise Raid Could Change How Warrants Are Executed