PITTSBURGH — Federal prosecutors want a woman who fatally shot an FBI agent who came to arrest her husband on drug charges kept in jail until her trial on a federal murder charge.

Christina Korbe's attorney said Korbe is not a danger or a flight risk, as prosecutors contend, and should be released.

"She has been nothing but remorseful for this," defense attorney John Elash said after Korbe's initial appearance in federal court on Tuesday. "She's totally distraught. All she cares about is her kids."

Elash called the Nov. 19 shooting of Special Agent Sam Hicks a tragedy for everyone involved, but he said she was justified in shooting because she was defending herself and her two young children from what she presumed to be intruders.

He will argue for her release at a detention hearing scheduled for Dec. 15. He said he hopes to have her out in time for Christmas.

According to prosecutors, Hicks, 33, was one of several agents who went to Korbe's Indiana Township home on Nov. 19 to serve a warrant for her husband, Robert Korbe, 39. A convicted felon, he had been wanted by agents who were rounding up suspects in a drug sweep in and around the city.

Authorities contend they knocked on the door and identified themselves as law enforcement before Korbe fired the shot that killed Hicks, the first law officer into the home.

After she shot, Christina Korbe called 911 and told an operator that someone had broken into her home and she shot them with her .38-caliber handgun. She later told police she never heard them identify themselves as such.

"She only pulled that trigger for one reason. She thought she was going to be killed" or her children harmed, Elash said.