Slain FBI agent Daniel Alfin leaves a legacy of ‘passion, dedication, and principle

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March 15, 2021

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(CNN)FBI Special Agent Daniel Alfin will be remembered for the lives he changed and for “all the children who are safe today, and have a chance at a better life,” because of what he did to protect them, FBI Director Christopher Wray said during a Sunday memorial service for the agent in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Alfin and FBI Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger were shot and killed last week while serving a federal search warrant at an apartment complex in Sunrise, South Florida. The warrant was part of an investigation into violent crimes against children and both agents were part of the bureau’s crimes against children squad in its Miami field office.
Alfin’s casket was wheeled into the Hard Rock Stadium draped with the US flag. His service took place a day after one in honor of Schwartzenberger.
 
“Dan’s legacy is one of passion, dedication, and principle,” Wray said during his remarks.”It’s what you imagine when you think of a proud FBI agent who will do anything to catch the bad guy, and a devoted father who would do anything for his family.”
The two agents, he added, were “two of the very best the FBI had to offer.”
Alfin joined the FBI’s Albany, New York, office in 2009, Wray said, and about five years later joined the crimes against children unit in Linthicum, Maryland. He was known as “an innovator with an unsurpassed understanding of the technical side of crimes against children,” the director added.
Alfin was the “primary case agent and the driving force” behind one of the FBI’s most successful operations against online child sex offenders, Wray added.
In 2017, Alfin moved to Florida, where he did “exactly the kind of work he wanted to do in the exact plac loved the most,” Wray added.
 
“Dan was beloved in his field, and his death is grieved around the world by all levels of law enforcement tackling crimes against children,” the director said. “In talking to folks, the one word that keeps coming up is this: irreplaceable.”
Alfin’s brother, Denis Alfin, who also spoke at the memorial, offered more personal anecdotes for the highly accomplished agent, saying it was all the memories his family made with him that will allow him to live on.
Memories like collecting “loose pennies and nickels” to buy their first Nintendo, family birthday dinners, beach trips and fishing in lakes.
“In honoring Daniel today, we are not just saying goodbye to a colleague, a friend, a brother, a son, a father or a husband, but we’re collectively ensuring his memory lives on,” his brother said.
“As we move forward through life, we will all remember our parts of Daniel, and in doing so, he will live forever and walk beside us through life,” he added