Fugitive who fatally shot deputy U.S. marshal in Louisiana dies

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A fugitive who authorities say shot and killed a deputy U.S. marshal during a gun battle at a Louisiana motel died of his wounds early on Wednesday, the local coroner's office said. A law enforcement task force had come to a Baton Rouge motel early on Tuesday to arrest Jamie Croom, 31, in the shooting deaths last month of a brother and sister outside a nightclub in nearby New Roads. When Croom engaged the officers in gunfire, deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells, 27, was shot and died at a local hospital shortly after being taken there by his partner. Wells' remains were being returned to his native Mississippi on Wednesday, Baton Rouge-based U.S. Marshal Kevin Harrison said. Croom was also shot multiple times and died early on Wednesday after hours in surgery at a hospital, said Shane Evans, chief of investigations for the East Baton Rouge Coroner's Office. In a statement released on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder lauded Wells, who joined the U.S. Marshals Service in 2011, as a courageous patriot. "Though he was taken from us far too suddenly and far too soon, he leaves behind an indelible legacy that will live on in the lives he touched," Holder said. (Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Sandra Maler)