Christopher Hill served in Afghanistan, worked in Washington D.C. and rose to the top of the U.S. Marshal's Service, according to the leader of the agency.
But Hill, 45, was felled by a gunman's bullets Thursday as he helped to serve an arrest warrant in the city of Harrisburg.
He is survived by a wife and two young children.
Hill had been working out of the Harrisburg office since 2009 after a stint in Washington D.C. The following year, he was assigned to the prestigious "special operations group," with a focus on fugitive apprehension, according to U.S. Marshal Martin Pane. The group members represent the top one percent of deputy marshals, he said.
The group is highly trained, and its members would have been prepared for any assignment or situation, Pane said.
The events that led to the death of a US deputy marshal
"You don't get into that unit unless you have special skill sets," Pane said at a news conference Thursday, eight hours after Hill was mortally wounded. "Tactically...you probably would not find a better tactical operator in the state of Pennsylvania."
Pane called Hill: "the cream of the crop."
Hill was inside a house in the 1800 block of Mulberry Street about 6:10 a.m. Thursday with two other officers and they had arrested a woman on an outstanding arrest warrant. The woman, Shayla Lynette Towles Pierce, was in handcuffs.
That's when bullets suddenly rained down from the second-floor, from the top of the stairs, hitting Hill and another officer, officials said.
Additional officers opened the back door and pulled out their wounded comrades.
The gunman then ran downstairs and fired at officers as he barged out the front door, according to officials. A Harrisburg officer wounded by a projectile that hit his bullet-resistant vest fired back at the gunman, killing him.
The gunman's name was not released.
As part of Hill's career, Hill commanded a group of marshals involved in the drawn-out manhunt through dense forests for Eric Frein in 2014 after Frein killed a state trooper and wounded a second trooper in an ambush.
Hill also was a firearms instructor and trained in explosives used to help distract suspects as officers enter buildings, which is known as "breeching."
Pane said Hill won the U.S. Marshals Service Distinguished Group award for "significant contributions" in an effort to establish a judicial system in Afghanistan.
"This is a man who served his country over there with the US Marshals Service, helping to stand up justice," Pane said. "But this morning, Deputy Hill made the ultimate sacrifice."
Hill previously served in the Army from 1993 to 1996, including an overseas assignment to Afghanistan.
