[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

This is (I think) at least big enough for an Assistant Special Agent in Charge to be involved, but depending on how much coverage it's getting in the national news (given the context, it sounds like the answer would be 'a lot,' unless there's something else big going on to distract the media), a full Special Agent in Charge might be better.

EDIT: A lot of people in the public and even the media in the US don't have a great understanding of FBI ranks (and some in the media may pretend not to, to stir people up), so someone with 'assistant' in front of their title talking to the press may have people thinking that the person who is actually in charge sent his/her assistant to talk to the press, which doesn't always go over well.

Good point.

The first incident took place Friday night (actually a few minutes past midnight, so strictly speaking, Saturday morning, 29th of December, 2018). The FBI has a resident agency or satellite office administered from its Houston field office located in Texas City, 15 miles from the scene of the shooting.

Within ten minutes of the shooting, Special Agent Richard Rennison of that resident agency, who has worked closely with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office for more than a decade and who knew the deputies shot in the attack, had contacted the Sheriff's Office offering his support.

Within half an hour, Special Agent Rennison was at the scene and the FBI had officially offered the services of other agents and support personnel from its Houston field office to assist the Galveston PD and Galveston County Sheriff's Office. During the night, Special Agent Rennison was joined by other agents from the Texas City resident agency and functioned as, effectively, the case agent for the FBI response during the first few hours.

Texas City Resident Agency Supervisory Special Agent Bryan C. Gaines coordinated the FBI response during this first night and prepared a briefing for the Special Agent in Charge of the Houston field office and other senior FBI personnel who would be coming in that morning.

Special Agents Rennison and Gaines both wanted to take point on the investigation, but while Agent Rennison will continue to be the lead investigator from the FBI moving forward, Special Agent Gaines is not senior enough to continue in the role of the top commander of the FBI response once dozens of agents are assigned to the case on Saturday morning.

ASAC Ed Michel of the FBI Houston field office was obviously not at work on a Friday night, but he decided to come in early that Saturday morning. At a meeting with his boss, SAC Perrye K. Turner, the decision to send ASAC Michel down to Galveston was made, in preparation for the FBI taking over the case.

The selection of ASAC Michel made sense to me as in real life, he's worked several cases with the Galveston PD and Galveston County Sheriff's Office, including a high-profile one in 2018. There are five ASACs in the Houston field office, but at least from 2017-2018, ASAC Michel effectively functioned as the second-in-command of the field office and chief of staff. This is, therefore, a sign that the Houston field office is taking the murder of peace officers in Galveston very seriously.

The only more senior person they could have sent would have been the SAC himself, which would have left the Houston office leaderless, which would have been sub-optimal in light of the facts that; a) one of the largest field offices in the United States will always have other ongoing cases, b) aspects of the investigation of the incident required coordination with Texas DPS, Dallas PD, Houston PD and the Harris County Sheriff's Office, as well as the law enforcement agencies located in the Galveston area, and c) administration, investigative support, forensics and all sorts of other things for the investigation would be coordinated from Houston anyway.

ASAC Michel is an experienced agent with a background in homicide investigations, counter-terrorism and emergency management. Crucially, he's also the person in the FBI Houston field office who most often seems to manage media relations and coordination with local police forces during high-profile homicide cases, active shooter incidents and terrorist scares.

One factor to keep in mind about ASAC Michel is that he has applied for several senior executive law enforcement jobs outside the FBI, as he evidently does not expect to be promoted to the FBI senior executive service, i.e. to have a chance at Special Agent in Charge of one of the main field offices. In real life, he would retire from the FBI a few months after these events to take a job in his home town of New Orleans.

That means that ASAC Michel is probably extra sensitive to public scrutiny at this time (as he's trying to land a job as a top cop of a state-level law enforcement agency or as the chief of a major municipal police force), but as he has already been passed over for promotion within the FBI, he might be less susceptible to pressure from Washington.

All in all, ASAC Michel is most likely to navigate a middle course between the demands of his FBI bosses and the political sensibilities of Texas politicians. His primary motivation, however, will be to discharge his responsibilities to the best of his ability, but also to be seen by the public, and any governor or mayor looking for a new police chief, managing this crisis professionally and well.

However, when Michel has just finished his first full day as the senior FBI man in Galveston, officially providing support to the Galveston PD and the Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force, but practically behaving as if the FBI are in charge, the second incident occurs, around 18:00 of that Saturday, the 29th of December, 2018.

And now the investigation is going to get a lot bigger and the legal fiction of the Galveston PD being the primary agency will come to an end. At this point, it is entirely possible that ASAC Michel will remain attached to the Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force in Galveston and continue to work on the case, but another, special task force will be a created and a more senior FBI man, possibly one sent from Washington, will be placed at its head.

Is that something that might happen? And if so, what kind of FBI man might that be, i.e. would be a sort of roving Special Agent in Charge or is there a division within the FBI from which a senior figure might be sent to handle such a case?

Or, alternatively, of course, from the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security, and/or any of their constituent agencies that might claim jurisdiction; in practice, most likely ICE - Homeland Security Investigations.