4 dead-men-walking blacks arrested in murders of 2 Mississippi police officers during traffic stop

[Billy Bob McBoone]

Mississippi’s governor says his state is in “mourning” Sunday
after the shooting deaths of two police officers Saturday night
during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg.

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.

"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," Mississippi Gov. Phil 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.

A fourth suspect, Cornelius Clark, 28, was charged with
obstruction of justice.

Strain said officers arrested the three Hattiesburg residents at
different locations overnight without resistance.

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.

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 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.

The pain of the deaths hit particularly close to home for Erica
Sherrill Owens, the daughter of Sherrill.

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."

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."

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.

DuPree said Sunday that both officers’ lives aren’t to be
mourned, but celebrated, WDAM reports. Community events in honor
of both men are being organized.

DuPree praised law enforcement and residents for coming together
to find the suspects.

"We were able to catch these individuals and keep our promise to
the officers' families with the public's help," he said.

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."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/10/2-mississippi-police-
officers-dead-after-shootings-coroner-says/