INDIANA TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The wife of an alleged drug dealer was charged with killing an FBI agent who showed up at the couple's suburban Pittsburgh house to arrest her husband. As she faces charges, the family of Special Agent Sam Hicks is giving its emotional perspective on the shooting.

A former Baltimore police officer and school teacher, Hicks graduated from Southmoreland High School in Alverton and from the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown with a degree in chemistry in 1999. He leaves behind a wife, Brooke, and a 3-year-old son.

"The biggest tragedy in this is there is someone, she's 28 and she's a widow. She has got a son that is going to be heartbroken," said Angela Hohman, Hicks' sister-in-law.

Hicks, 33, had been with the FBI since March 2007 and was assigned to the Pittsburgh office in August 2007, said Michael Rodriguez, special agent in charge of the office.

"Special Agent Hicks made the ultimate sacrifice that any law enforcement officer makes for his country," Rodriguez said in a statement read to reporters. "He served with honor and bravery and will be greatly missed by his colleagues here in Pittsburgh and throughout the FBI."

On Thursday, FBI Director Robert Mueller and his wife Ann flew in from Washington to pay their respects to the extended Hicks family at Sam and Brooke's home.

"They were very nice, very comforting. The came and gave their condolences and played with Noah (Hicks' son)," said Hicks' sister, Emily.

Mueller said, "The loss of Sam Hicks is a tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Sam's family and the members of the Pittsburgh field office."

Christina Korbe, 40, was arraigned early Thursday on a charge of homicide in the shooting death of Hicks. He and other law enforcement officers went to the Korbe home in Indiana Township to serve a warrant on Korbe's husband, Robert, as part of a drug sweep.

Her request for bail was denied.

According to the criminal complaint for Christina Korbe, law enforcement agents arrived at the home at 6:03 a.m. Wednesday. Police announced themselves and saw a man running inside. Officers rammed the door and broke a window to enter.

Hicks entered first and turned left. A gunshot was fired and he yelled, "I'm hit." Police dragged him outside and called 911.

Christina Korbe later told police she was standing at the top of the stairs and thought she shot an intruder. She returned to her bedroom, called 911 at 6:05 a.m. and was arrested while on the phone. Korbe said she never heard police identify themselves.

Robert Korbe, 39, said he told his wife to stay upstairs while he went to the door. When he realized it was the police, he ran to the basement, dumped cocaine into a wash tub, dressed and ran out the back door before he was arrested, police said.

Christina Korbe was with her 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son when agents arrived and may have feared for their safety, said her attorney, Sumner Parker.

"It became very chaotic and confusing and based on some other things taking place. ... My client may have taken actions that she thought was appropriate and ultimately called 911 to get local police to her house based on what she thought was happening," Parker said.

Parker said he represents Robert Korbe on state charges.

Christina Korbe was at Allegheny County Police headquarters until Wednesday evening, when she was taken away on a stretcher crying and holding a white blanket over her head. She was put into a waiting ambulance and taken to a hospital because she was feeling ill, and was later returned to police custody.

Her husband was one of 35 people charged Wednesday in the 27-count indictment that accuses the defendants of conspiring to traffic cocaine and crack from October 2007 through September. Christina Korbe was not named in the indictment.

Earlier in the day, her husband told reporters as he was being led into a police car, "They shot their own guy."

However, Special Agent William Crowley, an FBI spokesman, said otherwise.

"Based on the information we have right now, every indication is that no shot was fired by law enforcement at the crime scene," he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Robert Korbe had a brief appearance in federal court on the drug charges. He was represented by a public defender but told the judge that he intended to hire his own attorney.

The judge scheduled a detention hearing Monday for him at the request of the federal prosecutor. In the meantime, he was to be held at the Allegheny County Jail.

Robert Korbe has a record of drug arrests dating at least to the early 1990s. In May, he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and drug counts, according to online court documents.