Area residents Alberta Harris, center, and Waynetta Theodore, left, and Christiena Preston, console each other as they pay their respects at a makeshift memorial, near the site where two Mississippi police officers were killed, Sunday, May 10, 2015, in Hattiesburg, Miss. The 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. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) Two Mississippi police officers were shot to death during a routine evening traffic stop turned violent, a state law enforcement spokesman said Sunday. Four suspects were in custody, including two who were charged with capital murder.
The deaths of Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate – the first Hattiesburg police officers to die in the line of duty in more than 30 years – stunned this small city in southern Mississippi.
On Sunday morning, bloodstains still marked the street where the two were shot, and a steady stream of people visited the site to leave flowers or balloons. In the nearby New Hope Baptist Church, worshippers prayed for the fallen officers and their families.
“This should remind us to thank all law enforcement for their unwavering service to protect and serve,” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. “May God keep them all in the hollow of his hand.”
Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Banks also was 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 fourth person, 28-year-old Cornelius Clark, was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice, he added.
All four are expected to make their initial court appearances Monday at the Forest County Justice Court, Strain said. It was not immediately known if they had lawyers.
A preliminary investigation indicated Deen had pulled over the vehicle on suspicion of speeding and then called for backup, which is when Tate arrived. Strain said it was too early to say who shot the officers or how many shots were fired. He said both officers died of