Marshals fatally shoot most wanted fugitive
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Mathis is shown in these undated photos from the U.S. Marshals most wanted list.
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(CNN) -- U.S. Marshals fatally shot one of their 15 most wanted fugitives Saturday after tracking him to a Michigan hotel room and ending a nine-year search, the Marshals Service said.
Eddie Mathis, 39, was wanted on a Drug Enforcement Administration warrant in Brooklyn, New York.
The DEA said he was the triggerman in a double homicide and was a co-leader and enforcer for a crack cocaine ring on Long Island, wanted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
On August 9, a story about Mathis appeared for the fourth time on the Fox television show "America's Most Wanted," which generated the leads that broke the case, the Marshals Service said.
Authorities first tracked Mathis to Detroit, but Thursday's massive power outage put the search in limbo, a law enforcement source said.
They later caught up with him at a Redford, Michigan, hotel room, where he was staying with a woman, the Marshals Service said.
Mathis refused to leave the room after local police and officers from several fugitive task forces confronted him, the service said.
"Mathis, who was considered armed and dangerous by authorities, was in possession of several weapons and threatened officers with a handgun," the Marshals Service said.
"As officers attempted to arrest him, shots were fired and Mathis was wounded."
He died after being taken to the hospital, the Marshals Service said.
