US Marshals round up 7,100 fugitives in national sweep

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) – The U.S. Marshals Service says it rounded up 7,100 fugitives in a six-week nationwide sweep that focused on seven cities shown to have a high number of people wanted by the law.

Director Stacia Hylton joined law enforcement officials in Camden, New Jersey, on Thursday to announce the results of the effort called Operation Violence Reduction 7, which ran from March 2 through April 10.

A deputy marshal was killed in Louisiana while carrying out the roundup – the first on-duty death of a marshal in four years. Josie Wells was fatally wounded in a March 10 shootout with a suspect on the outskirts of Baton Rouge.

Hylton says the effort focused on finding the most dangerous fugitives in seven cities. She said the roundup included surrounding areas to make it more difficult for fugitives to flee.

She says those arrested included 519 people wanted for homicide and 583 for sexual assault.

She says 10 missing children were also located.

Besides Camden, the operation took place in Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; New Orleans; and Oakland, California.

There were 84 arrests in Camden, a city near Philadelphia that has long ranked as one of the most dangerous in the country.