Arrest Made in Off-Duty Shooting of Border Agent in Calif.

Kenneth Hudson was sleeping, like others in his neighborhood Tuesday morning, when three gunshots, fired rapidly in succession, pierced the street's predawn silence.

The 17-year-old high school student said he quickly got out of bed, heard two to three more shots and looked outside. Within minutes, he and other residents would learn the grim news: Their neighbor -- an off-duty federal agent -- had been shot and wounded outside his home.

"It's shocking," said Hudson, expressionless while he stood later near the crime scene under dark gray rain clouds. "This is the most violence I've ever experienced in my life."

The 61-year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, who lives in 7700 block of Mayhews Landing Road near Bettencourt Street, was shot about 5:50 a.m., police said.

Hours later, police arrested a man suspected of pulling the trigger.

Dennis Bagwell, 61, of Piedmont, was taken into custody without incident after a traffic stop in Union City, said police Cmdr. Robert Douglas.

Bagwell, a former Fremont resident, has no criminal history, Douglas said. Police did not release any information regarding a possible motive or about any relationship between the two men.

The agent, whose name was not released, was taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. Information about his medical condition was not released because his family requested it be kept private, Douglas said.

After the shooting, several

neighbors joined Hudson, huddling in the rain behind yellow police tape that blocked traffic on Mayhews Landing Road between Buckeye and Spruce streets. Police vehicles were parked in front of the agent's single-story house, as investigators worked underneath white tents installed in the driveway to protect evidence -- including a police baton, a pair of handcuffs and an empty holster -- from the rain.

Investigators also photographed a neighbor's sport-utility vehicle whose passenger door was pierced by a single bullet.

One neighbor, who asked not to be named, said she was getting ready to take her child to school when she first heard people arguing outside, including a man who yelled, "Get down on the ground."

She looked outside and saw a man fire a gun, then walk to a nearby car. Another neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he heard six shots, then saw his neighbor lying in his driveway, his shirt stained with blood.

A neighbor said the victim was able to talk to Newark officers before an ambulance took him to the hospital.

The shooting was the first of two incidents involving federal agents in the area Tuesday morning, though police said they were unrelated.

About 6 a.m., federal agents raided a home in the 7100 block of Arbeau Drive, between Tozier and Haley streets, about a mile north of the shooting, Douglas said.

Agents wearing FBI and ATF jackets and Newark police surrounded the home and blocked off Arbeau Drive, preventing neighbors from leaving their homes to attend school or work, residents said.

Eybar Madrigal, a longtime neighbor, said he woke up to loud noises on his street. He looked outside his second-story window and saw officers in camouflage uniforms and others outside the house.

By Tuesday afternoon, shards of glass remained on the ground on all sides of the residence, and windows broken during the raid were boarded up.

Spokesmen from FBI and Newark police did not provide other details about the incident, declining to say what prompted the raid or if any arrests were made.

Several residents at the scene of the agent's shooting said the neighborhood has seen a spate of violence in the past six months. Last fall, someone fired a shotgun into a garage on Bettencourt Street, two blocks from the shooting, and a stabbing occurred three months ago on nearby Indian Wells Drive, they said.

Jason McMahan, who has lived in the neighborhood for six years, said the area has been a quiet, pleasant place to live until this year. Besides the recent violence, he mentioned a crash last month at Cherry Street and Mowry Avenue involving burglary suspects fleeing a crime. A bystander and one of the suspects were killed in the collision, he said.

"It's scary and it's crazy," McMahan said. "It feels like an escalation of violence here in the last year."

Anyone with information about the shooting can call Sgt. Mike Carroll at 510-578-4247 or leave anonymous tips on the "silent witness" hot line at 510-678-4000, ext. 500.

Copyright 2012 - The Argus, Fremont, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service