The deputy U.S. marshal killed in a shootout was expecting his first child - a boy, his wife learned the day after his death. Channing Wells said on Wednesday that the baby will be named Josie Wells Jr., after his father. The last thing she told her husband was that she had an appointment - but not until next week - to learn whether the baby was a boy or a girl. Scroll down for video . Channing Wells (pictured on her wedding day with husband Josie in June 2012) has said her expectant baby will be named Josie Wells Jr, after his deputy U.S. Marshall father who was killed in the line of duty this week . Mrs Wells, an optometrist, said she didn't regret encouraging her husband to serve as a federal marshall and that he had died doing a job that he loved . 'The marshals took me to the hospital in Mississippi this morning so I could learn the baby's gender. ... It's bittersweet,' she said on Wednesday in a phone interview from Baton Rouge. Josie Wells, 27, was killed on the outskirts of that city on Tuesday in a shootout with a man suspected of killing two siblings outside a nightclub. The scene was about 130 miles from his home in the Jackson suburb of Raymond, Mississippi. The suspect, Jamie D. Croom, 31, of New Roads, Louisiana, was hit multiple times in the shootout. He died early Wednesday, East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William 'Beau' Clark said. Before Croom died, the U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with the young deputy's murder. Channing Wells said the couple had been married nearly three years but had been together since both were 19 and going into their sophomore years at Jackson State University. He took a job at the fast-food restaurant where she worked: 'He stayed for one paycheck, just to get my phone number,' she said. After she finished four more years of school in Chicago to become an optometrist, Josie Wells missed a test of his own to drive her to another state for her board examination, she said. Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells (left), 27, was fatally shot around 11am on Tuesday at Elm Grove Motel in Scotlandville - an area north of Baton Rouge. The fugitive, Jamie D. Croom (right), 31, from New Roads was shot and taken to a hospital where his condition has not been released . Later, she said, she encouraged her husband to look beyond his original ambition to service as a federal marshal. The fugitive, Jamie D. Croom, 31, was shot and taken to a hospital where his condition has not been released. He is facing murder charges . 'His dream was just to become a local police officer,' she said. 'I told him, 'Don't settle for that. Why don't you find the highest level of law enforcement you can do?'' Wells' father, Obie Wells Sr., who turns 57 Thursday, said he, too, had followed a family member into law enforcement. He retired from the sheriff's office in coastal Jackson County as a captain, and all of his sons followed him into the field. He said his surviving sons are a private security officer and police officers. One of his three daughters is studying criminal justice at Jackson State, where Josie Wells earned his bachelor's in the same subject. 'She was planning on doing an internship with Josie,' he said. Obie Wells, a self-described cowboy who keeps horses and used to keep cattle on his 100-acre spread in Wade, north of Pascagoula, said his longtime nickname is 'Josie' after the Clint Eastwood title character in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales.' He gave the name to his second son when his wife, Sherry, refused to let him follow George Foreman's example and name all of his sons Obie, he said. Josie Wells joined the U.S. Marshals Service immediately after getting his degree four years ago, Obie Wells said. Authorities said he was the first deputy marshal killed in the line of duty since 2011. Croom had a long criminal record and faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Lechelle Rita Williams, 42, and her brother Sinica Lee Williams, 38, said Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Beauregard Torres III. 'It was drug-related — just an ongoing feud because of two sides,' Lt. Richard Torres said Wednesday. Channing Wells said that despite her husband's death, she doesn't regret encouraging him to join the U.S. Marshals Service. 'He wouldn't have been happy just being stuck in one position, not knowing there was more — that he could have a higher potential,' she said. And, she said, 'he died doing what he wanted to do and what he loved.' Croom has been on the run since the February 18 shooting outside the Sugar Shack nightclub in Pointe Coupee that left Lechelle Rita Williams (left), 42, and her 38-year-old brother Sinica Lee Williams (right) dead .
Wife Channing Wells said on Wednesday that the baby will be named Josie Wells Jr, after his father . The last thing she told her husband was that she had an appointment - but not until next week - to learn whether the baby was a boy or a girl . Wells, 27, was killed on the outskirts of Baton Rouge on Tuesday in a shootout with a man suspected of killing two siblings outside a nightclub . The suspect, Jamie Croom, 31,  was hit multiple times in the shootout. He died early on Wednesday . Before Croom died, the U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with the young deputy's murder .