Attorney General Eric Holder delivers eulogy for slain U.S. Marshal Josie Wells

Josie Wells
Josie Wells
Josie Wells

MOSS POINT, Mississippi (AP) — The deputy U.S. marshal who died in a shootout was a leader who carried on his family’s legacy in law enforcement, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday at his funeral.

Holder delivered the eulogy for Josie Wells at Wade Baptist Church. Wells, 27, was killed in a shootout last week near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while he and other law enforcement officers tried to arrest a man suspected of killing two siblings outside a nightclub.

Holder read a message from President Barack Obama and told those attending the service about Wells’ background with a law-enforcement family.

“As a member of the U.S. Marshals Service, he was a young leader of extraordinary vigor and promise. He proudly wore the badge. He knew the risks involved in his work and the importance of his effort to keeping the peace,” Holder said.

Holder was joined at the service by Loretta Lynch, the president’s attorney general nominee, and Marshals Service Director Stacia A. Hylton.

Wells graduated from Jackson State University with a criminal-justice degree in 2011 and joined the Marshals Service that year.

Wells’ wife, Channing, is pregnant with the couple’s first child, a boy, who will be named Josie Wells Jr.

The funeral was off-limits to media other than local television station WLOX, which was allowed to carry a live internet feed of the church service. No media was allowed at the burial.