BALTIMORE -- A Pittsburgh FBI agent killed in a suburban drug raid was remembered Tuesday in Baltimore, where he was a police officer for five years before moving home to western Pennsylvania.

The funeral service for 33-year-old Special Agent Sam Hicks was held at The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and FBI Director Robert Mueller were speakers.

The FBI said Hicks was shot last week by 40-year-old Christina Korbe while a task force served a warrant on her husband, Robert, at the Korbes' home in Indiana Township, Allegheny County.

Christina Korbe is charged with homicide, while 39-year-old Robert Korbe is one of dozens throughout the Pittsburgh area named in a federal drug-trafficking indictment. Robert Korbe is scheduled for a detention hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Mueller said he didn't know Hicks, but by talking to family members and colleagues, he was able to learn that Hicks was "something of a superhero" who was "full of strength and energy."

Mueller gave a memorial star to Hicks' widow, Brooke, and Mukasey said Hicks' name would be added to the Wall of Honor honoring fallen agents.

Mueller came to Pittsburgh on Thursday to meet with Hicks' family and colleagues. He held two meetings, first with staff members at the local FBI office, and then privately with the Hicks family.

"He was genuinely upset. I mean, this was just as painful to him as the guys that Sam worked with," said Hicks' sister-in-law, Angela Hohman.

Flags were flown at half-staff in tribute to Hicks at the FBI's Pittsburgh headquarters on East Carson Street on the South Side.

Allegheny County detectives said Christina Korbe told them she thought the family was being attacked by pre-dawn intruders, but the FBI said police officers clearly identified themselves before breaking into the Korbes' house on Woods Run Road.

Family Remembers Husband, Father

Hicks' family is clearly struggling with the loss. But they want people to know how much he loved helping people and being an FBI agent.
Video: Family Remembers FBI Agent

The family said Hicks was living his dream. He and Brooke celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on Nov. 8, and he was working in his hometown, about to turn 34 on Thanksgiving. They said the couple were raising a 2-year-old son, Noah.

"He was a good father," Hohman said.

Hohman said her sister, Brooke, and Hicks' son, Noah, were her brother-in-law's world.

"God, he just loved him so much, and vice versa. They were buddies," Hohman said.

Hicks' loyalty to his family was no surprise to his younger sister, Emily.

"We had an absent father, so he was kind of a father figure for me," Emily Hicks said.

Emily Hicks said she looked up to her brother and always knew he would make it to the FBI.

"He wanted to make a difference and he wanted to make it better for our children, your children, everyone's children," Emily Hicks said.

It was something Hohman said her sister, Brooke, saw in Sam Hicks from the beginning.

"Brooke and Sam met the same way my parents met," Hohman said.

The couple met while in Ocean City.

"They just happened to be next door to each other. In that summer, within those couple months, they realized they were soulmates. (They) fell in love. Then, at the end of the summer, Sam said to her, 'If you want me to follow you to Baltimore, I will.' And he did," Hohman said.

The Hicks family was looking forward to their future in Pittsburgh and raising their son together. Now Hohman said her sister is not only struggling with losing her husband in the line of duty, but with how to tell their 2-year-old son he lost his best friend.

"He's just going to be so missed by so many people. He was just an amazing person, an amazing husband and an amazing father. I just ask that everybody pray for that little boy and my sister," Hohman said.

Brooke Hicks plans to move back to Baltimore with Noah to be close to her family.

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