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| Law enforcement officers lead Curtis Banks, center, into Troop J of the Mississippi Highway Patrol in Hattiesburg, Miss., early Sunday, May 10, 2015. Banks and his brother, Marvin Banks, were arrested in connection with the fatal shootings of two Hattiesburg police officers. Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press that 29-year-old Marvin Banks and 22-year-old Joanie Calloway were each charged with two counts of capital murder. Curtis Banks, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder. |
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) -- Two Mississippi police officers were shot to death during an evening traffic stop turned violent, a state law enforcement spokesman said Sunday. Three suspects were in custody, including two who are charged with capital murder.
The deaths
of the officers - the first to hit Hattiesburg in three decades - were
felt far and wide in this small southern Mississippi city. Gov. Phil
Bryant released a statement saying he was "mourning" the loss of the
officers.
"This should remind us to thank all
law enforcement for their unwavering service to protect and serve. May
God keep them all in the hollow of his hand," Bryant said.
Warren
Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety,
said Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with
two counts of capital murder. Banks was also charged with one count of
being a felon in possession of a firearm and with grand theft for
fleeing in the police cruiser after the shooting, Strain said.
"He
absconded with a Hattiesburg police cruiser. He didn't get very far,
three or four blocks and then he ditched that vehicle," Strain said.
Banks' 26-year-old brother, Curtis Banks, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.
The
three Hattiesburg residents were arrested without incident at different
locations overnight following the shooting, Strain said. They were
expected to face initial court appearances Monday. The three were being
held at undisclosed jails in the state and could not be reached for
comment. It was not immediately known if they had lawyers.
Strain said both officers died of their wounds at a hospital.
Lt.
Jon Traxler, a Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman, identified the
officers who died as 34-year-old Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate,
25. Local reports identified Deen as a past department "Officer of the
Year," and Tate was a newcomer to the force who Strain said was a 2014
graduate of the law enforcement academy.
The
preliminary investigation indicated that Deen had pulled over the
vehicle on suspicion of speeding and then called for backup, which is
when Liquori arrived. Strain said it was too early to say who shot the
officers or how many shots were fired.
For
many in this small community of Hattiesburg the first death of an
officer in the line of duty in three decades was a shock. The pain hit
particularly close to home for Erica Sherrill Owens. Her mother - Sgt.
Jackie Dole Sherrill - was killed in the line of duty in 1984 while
trying to serve a warrant on a suspect.
When
she heard the news of the two officers, Sherrill Owens said, her first
thought was that she hoped it was someone she didn't know.
"I
know that sounds so selfish because you don't want to hear of any
police officer losing their lives. Then when I heard one of the names,
my heart just sank because I went to high school with him."
She was referring to Deen, who had graduated from Sumrall High School in 1998, one year ahead of Sherrill Owens.
"We
were great friends in high school. He married his high school
sweetheart and he's got two kids and a great family," she said. "It's
just heartbreaking."
Tate grew up in a tough
part of Starkville, 150 miles north of Hattiesburg, and decided to
become a police officer so he could make a difference in the black
community, said Jarvis Thompson, who knew him from childhood in church.
"He
wanted to become an officer because we've seen so much of our peers get
killed or end up in jail," said Thompson, 24, of Starkville. "He was
talking all the time about how he wanted to do better and make the place
better."
At a news conference, Hattiesburg
Mayor Johnny DuPree asked the community to pull together and support the
families of the fallen officers.
"We want to
ask everybody to pray for these families. We want everybody to pray for
police officers not only here but around the United States," DuPree
said.
Tony Mozingo, a local judge, left red roses near the scene of the shooting.
"We
all just are heartbroken because we know and work with these officers
every day," said Mozingo, who was accompanied by his wife and two
daughters. Deen was a "consummate law enforcement professional."
The state's chief law enforcement agency, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, has taken up the investigation.
Hattiesburg
resident Tamika Mills was quoted by The Clarion-Ledger as saying some
bystanders came upon the officers on the ground, and that one of the
officers asked "... `Am I dying? I know I'm dying. Just hand me my
walkie-talkie,'" Mills told the paper.
She added, according to the account, that seeing the officers down was "shocking and heartbreaking."
