Thread: 2 Mississippi police officers dead after shootings, coroner says

2 Mississippi police officers dead after shootings, coroner says

Published May 10, 2015 FoxNews.com

BREAKING NEWS – Two Mississippi police officers have died following shootings, a coroner said late Saturday. Authorities are searching for the suspect.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Two Hattiesburg officers slain; suspects at large

Therese Apel, The Clarion-Ledger11:12 p.m. CDT May 9, 2015


(Photo: Tim Doherty/Hattiesburg American)


Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict confirmed to The Clarion-Ledger that two Hattiesburg police officers have died after being shot in the line of duty Saturday night.

They were taken to Forrest General Hospital, where they were confirmed dead. At least one officer was still alive when he arrived at the hospital.

Authorities have not released the names of the officers.

Benedict said he is working to locate family members.

Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree said is asking residents to remain at home and inside while authorities search for the suspect.


Hattiesburg mayor Johnny DuPree, center, addresses the media at Forrest General Hospital after two Hattiesburg police officers were shot on East Fourth Street late Saturday. Also pictured: Major Hardy Sims, left, and Major Billy Lane. (Photo: Tim Doherty/Hattiesburg American)


The shooting occurred near East Fourth and Bouie streets around 8 p.m. The officers were reportedly on a routine traffic stop when the shooting took place.

Law enforcement officials are still looking for the shooter.

Officials believe the suspect took an officer's car, which has been found abandoned on Gordon Street near the old train depot.

Multiple law enforcement agencies have responded to help.
It is the first slaying of a Hattiesburg officer since Jackie Dole Sherrill was killed on New Year's Eve in 1984.

Clarion-Ledger reporter Sarah Fowler, executive editor Sam R. Hall, and Hattiesburg American reporters Tom Doherty and Jason Munz contributed to this report.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/n...lled/27072893/

Oxford Police Dept‏@OxfordPolice

MURDER SUSPECTS IDENTIFIED: If you have any information on Curtis Banks or Marvin Banks call your local agency.
Mississippi, USA
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9:10 PM - 9 May 2015

Two officers killed


Mississippi city loses first officers in 30 years

Officers Benjamin J. Deen and Liquori Tate were shot during a traffic stop, the mayor says. FULL STORY

3 arrested in murders of 2 Mississippi police officers during traffic stop

Published May 10, 2015 FoxNews.com



NOW PLAYINGMississippi: Two police officers killed during traffic stop
The shooting death of two Mississippi police officers Saturday night during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg prompted a statewide manhunt that led to the arrests of three suspects, according to officials.

Officer Benjamin Deen,34, had stopped a 2000 Gold Cadillac Escalade in an industrial part of the city at around 8:30 p.m. local time Saturday, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Officer Liquori Tate, 25, arrived afterward to assist him, shots were fired, and both officers were wounded.

Strain said both officers died of their injuries at a hospital. The officers’ deaths are reportedly the first for the Hattiesburg police force in 30 years.

Strain said law enforcement agencies across the state launched a manhunt for the perpetrators, leading to the arrests of three suspects: 26-year-old Curtis Banks, his 29-year-old brother Marvin Banks, and 22-year-old Joanie Calloway.

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Curtis, left, and Marvin, right, Banks were arrested in connection with the shooting that left 2 Mississippi police officers dead. (Oxford Police Department)


Marvin Banks and Calloway have each been charged with two counts of capital murder, and Banks' brother Curtis has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.

Strain says Marvin 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.

He said officers arrested the three Hattiesburg residents at different locations overnight without resistance following Saturday night's deadly shooting.

Because authorities said the three were being held at undisclosed jails in the state, they could not be reached for comment. It was not immediately known if they had acquired lawyers.

Mississippi 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.

The Hattiesburg American reports that Curtis Banks was brought to the Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop J headquarters Sunday at around 3 a.m. local time. His brother Marvin Banks was arrested about two hours earlier.

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that as reporters were asking Curtis Banks if he had shot two of the Hattiesburg patrolmen, he blurted out “no sir, I didn’t do it.”

"All I know right now is that there was a traffic stop and someone started shooting at them and both of the officers were struck," Lt. Jon Traxler, a police department spokesman, said Saturday night. He said he didn't know how many shots were fired, or exactly by whom, adding that was now part of the investigation.

Traxler 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 the Clarion-Ledger 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 Clarion-Ledger reports 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.

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."

The last Hattiesburg police officer killed in the line of duty was Sgt. Jackie Dole Sherrill, who died on New Year's Eve in 1984, according to police department records. Sherrill, 33, was gunned down as she attempted to serve a warrant on a suspect.

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