Special Agent Billy Magalassi is a Certified Fire and Explosives Specialist with ATF.As an ATF Agent in Oklahoma, Alumnus Billy Magalassi assisted in the investigation a woman and two children found dead in a trailer fire. After carefully piecing the case together, the evidence showed the woman was brutally stabbed to death by a boyfriend, her eight-year-old son was fatally wounded coming to her aid and her six-year-old daughter was locked in a closet alive before the house was set on fire.
“On a personal note, I try and be an advocate for the victims who are no longer here to tell anyone what happened,” Magalassi said. “I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and seeing the victims, particular the boy, who after seeing his mom attacked and stabbed by the boyfriend, was coming to Mom’s aid. He was just a child, and you just want to do something for them. So you put the case back together and deliver it to a jury to tell their story.”
Magalassi (r) and Jamie Lord of ATF were named Fire Investigators of the Year by the IAAI in 2013.For their work in the 2010 case, Magalassi, now Resident Agent in Charge of the ATF Tulsa Field Office, and Jamie Lord of the ATF Fire Research Laboratory in Ammendale, Maryland, were awarded the “2013 Fire Investigators of the Year” by the International Association of Arson Investigators. In addition to processing the scene, the investigation included locating and reassembling the same model trailer to test fire origin and burn rates of the fire and to document the impact the fire had on the young girl in the closet. As a result, the suspect was found guilty of all three murders and arson and sentenced to death.(See video interviews at the IAAI web site.)
Unlike most ATF agents, who specialize in guns, gangs and drugs, Magalassi is a Certified Fire Specialist (CES), the only federal law enforcement officers that qualify as expert witnesses in fire origin and cause cases in federal courts. Magalassi is also a Certified Explosives Specialist, charged with probing the origin and causes of cases involving explosives as well as demolishing ordnances found. Each specialty required two additional years of training.
Magalassi (left) and Oklahoma Highway Patrol Bomb Technician Robert Daws prepare explosive charges in an explosives disposal operation.Although ATF has a cadre of bomb technicians, the ATF Certified Explosives Specialists perform a very unique role in explosives disposal, post blast investigation, and explosives origin and cause investigation.
“We are not bomb technicians, but we do explosives research and demolition and handle large amounts of explosives material,” said Magalassi. “I’ve disposed of handmade explosives and 20 year old dynamite someone found in his father’s shed.”
Magalassi, who graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1986, began his career as a Dallas police officer before joining the ATF in 1990 as a special agent. After five years on general assignment, he decide to join sign up for the elite crew of fire investigators following a series of church fires in the South. There are only 80 certified fire specialists in ATF nationwide, and many of the agents were retiring.
Magalassi documents a fire scene as part of an ATF National Response Team activation.“It peaked my interest,” he said. “I think it is one of the most positive things the ATF does. I am proud to be a part of it.”
In addition to assisting local and state agencies with large fires or those involving homicides, the ATF investigates any structure fire that involves interstate commerce. This can includes such businesses as hotels, apartments, stores, restaurants or rental property. The agency also is charged under U.S. Title 18 Chapter 844 with investigating any crime using fire or explosives that can be prosecuted in U.S. District Courts, such as property owners who burn down structures to collect insurance. Under the federal code, the penalty for arson is very steep. In one of his cases, where a man was convicted of burning down two rental properties for insurance, the suspect was sentenced 430 months in prison.
Magalassi prepares to remove charred materials with a crane from a from a fire scene. “It’s a lot different than the gangs, guns and violent crime that ATF agents are known for,” said Magalassi. “We handle the cases with the white collar criminal flair.”
Another exciting aspect of his job is the Fire Research Facility in Ammendale, Maryland. The state-of-the-art facility is staffed by fire engineers and electrical engineers, who can replicate fires to prove or disprove theories. The facility was used to solve the Oklahoma fire and, in another case, a three story home was replicated inside the building and burned. The expertise and services even have been used outside the country is U.S. territories across the globe.
For explosive case, Magalassi is called upon to rebuild bombs from shrapnel or to retrieve explosive materials.
Magalassi conducts Improvised Explosives Device Training at the ATF National Center for Explosives Training and Research in Huntsville Alabama. Magalassi also serves as the Resident Agent in Charge of the Tulsa Field Office, which covers 37 counties in Oklahoma. As head of an active office, Magalassi often can be found on the scene of ongoing investigations.
Magalassi urged students interested in federal service to get experience in local police departments first. “It prepared me well to step in the role of a federal agency,” he said. “I really believe that you have to go to a police department to get real world police experience. You will never get the street level knowledge you get as a local cop.”
Magalassi said his career has taken him all over the world and he is proud of the work he has done. He also is grateful for his education at SHSU, which was often provided by faculty with professional experience in the field.
“ATF has been a great career,” Magalassi said. “I have gotten to travel all over the world. I have gotten to experience things that I thought I would never get to see or do.”
"The appointments to the Forensic Science Standards Board essentially mark a transition from planning to doing," said NIST Acting Director Willie May. "After months of collaboration with the forensic science community, we are bringing to life this new organization that will have a positive impact on the practice of forensic science in the United States.” 
Before joining SHSU, Dr. Kerrigan served as the Director of the State Laboratory in New Mexico, where she was responsible for the blood and breath alcohol program in addition to forensic drug- and alcohol- related medical examiner and criminal casework, and the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services, where she worked as a forensic toxicologist and quality assurance manager. Originally trained at the Scotland Yard Laboratory in London, Dr. Kerrigan has been widely published in the field and has worked in a variety of private sector, academic, and government settings.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be selected,” said Dr. Kerrigan. “There is a collective optimism among the forensic community to advance our discipline and there is no doubt that this new organization will have measurable impact” 
In February, NIST announced the formation of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees, a collaborative body of more than 600 forensic science practitioners and experts in government, academia and industry to assist in the development of consensus documentary standards and guidelines in forensic science. The committees, which report to the Forensic Science Standards Board, will study the research and measurement standards in each discipline to ensure there is a sufficient scientific basis for results. 
These committees are charged with investigating five key areas, including Biology/DNA; Chemistry/Instrumental Analysis, Crime Scene/Death Investigations; Information Technology/Multimedia and Physics/Pattern. Other committees involved in the process include human factors, legal resource and quality infrastructure.
A participant maps out a mock accident scene.
Homeland security deals with more than just terrorism, as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. Dr. Lundberg worked on the government review of the response to the natural disaster, which for him was summed up in a statement by a disaster modeler from the Federal Emergency Management Agency: “Mother Nature is the biggest terrorist of all.”
The course will examine the multi-disciplinary response in the emerging field of homeland security education. The introductory course will cover the historical, present, and current threats in the field and how we deal with them.
In addition to using a book on homeland security penned by Dr. Willard Oliver of the College of Criminal Justice, Dr. Jones will have students read Princeton University Press's Theories of International Politics; Zombies by Dan Drezner (another inspiration for the course) and the award-winning Hot Zone by Richard Preston which documents Ebola cases in the 1990s. .jpg)
