Two police officers shot dead in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

© Hattiesburg Police Department
Officer Benjamin Deen, left, and Officer Liquori Tate.

    

Three people were arrested in connection with the murder of two police officers who were fatally shot Saturday evening during a traffic stop in the southern Mississippi city of Hattiesburg.

The incident prompted a statewide manhunt overnight, and led to a pair of brothers and a third suspect being arrested, authorities said.

In a statement, the Hattiesburg Police Department said an "extensive" manhunt led to the capture of three suspects in different locations. They were identified as Marvin Banks, 29, who has been charged with two counts of capital murder, one count of grand theft auto and one count of a felon in possession of a firearm; Joanie Calloway, 22, who has been charged with two counts of capital murder; and Curtis Banks, 26, has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.

© Hattiesburg Police Department
From left to right, Marvin Banks, Curtis Banks and Joanie Calloway.

    

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said a Hattiesburg officer had stopped a 2000 Gold Cadillac Escalade about 8:30 p.m. CDT Saturday, a second officer arrived to help him and shots were fired. Those were reported to be the first deaths on the Hattiesburg police force in three decades.

Strain told The Associated Press by phone early Sunday that the shooting occurred near an area of apartment houses and that officers told people immediately afterward to take shelter while they searched for two suspects.

Strain said both officers died of their injuries at a hospital.

He said the suspects had left the scene but didn't elaborate if they were stopped by police initially.

affiliate in Hattiesburg reports the Banks brothers were taken into custody early Sunday morning. Marvin Banks was arrested at a motel around 1 a.m. Two hours later, Curtis Banks was reportedly taken into custody at an apartment complex.

Torsky Williams, a long-time Hattiesburg resident, told he was there as the shots rang out.

"I heard six or seven shots," Williams said. He said the situated escalated very quickly."

reports sources say one of the suspects attempted to leave the scene in an officer's patrol car. That car was abandoned near a railroad in Forrest County.

A Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman, Lt. Jon Traxler, told The AP the officers who died were 34-year-old Benjamin Deen and 25-year-old Liquori Tate. Local reports identified Deen as a past department "Officer of the Year" and Tate as a newcomer to the force.

Specifics of why the vehicle was stopped and why shooting broke out remained unclear, Strain said. Strain said he also didn't have further details of the officers' actions when the shots erupted.

He said the state's chief law enforcement agency, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, had taken up the probe of the shooting.

Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree told he lamented the deaths.

"The men and women who go out every day to protect us, the men and woman who go out every day to make sure that we're safe, they were turned on (Saturday) night," DuPree said outside Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, where the officers were taken.

The newspaper reported these are the first Hattiesburg officers to die in the line of duty in 30 years. It said Tate was a recent police academy graduate while Deen was a K-9 officer who had been honored as the department's "Officer of the Year" in 2012.

A call to DuPree's office for further comment wasn't returned early Sunday.

Hattiesburg resident Tamika Mills told that bystanders came upon the officers on the ground, and that one of them asked "... 'Am I dying? I know I'm dying. Just hand me my walkie-talkie.'" Mills told the paper, that seeing the officers down in the street was "shocking and heartbreaking."