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[h=4]Deaths of Mississippi officers is 'unfathomable tragedy'[/h]HATTIESBURG, Miss. — On a Sunday when the nation celebrated mothers, Hattiesburg, Miss., mourned two fallen sons.
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A fourth person has been arrested and charged in connection with the fatal shooting of two Hattiesburg police officers. The two officers were shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. Hattiesburg American
Hattiesburg Police Department patrolmen Benjamin J. Deen, left, and Liquori Tate died Saturday, May 9, 2015, after being shot during a traffic stop.(Photo: Courtesy Hattiesburg (Miss.) Police Department)
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — On a Sunday when the nation celebrated mothers, Hattiesburg, Miss., mourned two fallen sons.
"No parent should have to bury their child before them, and here we are on Mother's Day, with a tragedy for all America, a tragedy for our community," said Mayor Johnny DuPree.
Hattiesburg Police Department patrolmen Benjamin J. Deen and Liquori Tate died Saturday night after being shot shortly before 8 p.m. while making a traffic stop.
Three suspects were arrested between the time of the incident and 3 a.m. Sunday.
Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, both of Hattiesburg, were charged with two counts of capital murder, while Banks' brother, Curtis Banks, 26, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.
USA TODAY
'Deeply saddened': Hattiesburg mourns fallen officers
Marvin Banks also was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and grand theft auto for fleeing in one of the patrolmen's vehicles after the shooting.
Sunday, a fourth suspect, Cornelius Clark, 28, was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice.
"In a city as amazing as Hattiesburg, this is an unfathomable tragedy," said state Rep. Toby Barker, a Republican from Hattiesburg. "Everyone in our community feels this one."
A memorial service for Deen and Tate will be held Monday.
“In a city as amazing as Hattiesburg, this is an unfathomable tragedy. Everyone in our community feels this one.”
State Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, Miss.
Two of the four suspects were no strangers to the Hattiesburg Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
"They were felons," DuPree said Sunday referring to Marvin and Curtis Banks.
For Marvin Banks, there were no fewer than seven arrests between 2008 and October.
The charges began small — a noise violation and an issue with a car tag in 2008 — then escalated. In 2010, he was arrested with a three-month period for both possession of a stolen firearm and sale of crack cocaine. In 2011, he appeared on a possession of marijuana charge. In the ensuing months, he was arrested by the police department as a fugitive and for a probation violation. In 2013, he appeared again on a sale of crack cocaine charge in Forrest Count, and last October he was arrested by the University of Southern Mississippi police on a trespass charge.
Curtis Banks, a standout pitcher for Hattiesburg High in the mid-2000s, was arrested on a simple robbery charge in 2008, then four more times, including in 2013 on warrants that had been issued for simple assault by threat, carrying a concealed weapon and vandalism. He was cited for simple assault and consuming in a moving vehicle in 2010, and four vehicle-related charges came in 2011.
Jennifer Bass, a school resource officer with Hattiesburg Public School District who was with the police department for six years, said she was crushed when she heard of the tragedy.
"I'm devastated," she said. "When I heard the news, my heart just dropped. We've all made traffic stops on that street. It could have happened to any of us.
"It's heartbreaking. I've been trying to hold back the tears. It shouldn't have happened."
It hadn't happened in Hattiesburg in more than 30 years, when Jackie Dole Sherrill was shot and killed on New Year's Eve 1984.
"I always hoped that she would be the last," said her daughter, Erica Sherrill Owens, who was a 3-year-old when she lost her mother. "Mother's Day, it's always a tough day, but this, this is worse."
USA TODAY
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Sherrill Owens said she grew up with Deen, who back in the day wore his hair long and was known to friends as "B.J."
"When I heard that two officers had been shot, I selfishly, immediately thought, 'Oh my God! I hope it's no one I know,' " Sherrill Owens said. "I know it's selfish to think that, because you don't want it to be anybody, but immediately, I'm running the list in my head, and the first name that came to mind was B.J. because I knew he still worked patrol and I grew up with him."
Sickeningly, her worst fears were realized.
"I heard my dad (Charlie Sherrill, a former police officer) on the phone talking to one of his friends and when he got to the last name, my heart just sank," she said. "He was such a good guy, just such a good guy."
And an outstanding policeman. A six-year veteran of the force who also was a K-9 officer, Deen, 34, was named Officer of the Year in 2012.
He left behind a wife and two young children.
"A lot of my guys worked with him, and he was an outstanding officer," Lamar County Sheriff Danny Rigel said.
Rigel said the past 24 hours have been wrenching for all who carry a badge.
"It's a brotherhood, and it just rocks you to the core," he said. "It's not just affecting the Hattiesburg Police Department. It's affecting everybody who serves in this state and in this region, for that matter."
USA TODAY
Fourth suspect charged in shooting of 2 Miss. cops
Tate, 25, was a graduate of the 16-officer, Hattiesburg Police Academy Class No. 30 in 2014. He earned the class's "Top Shot Proficiency Pistol Award."
Tate had been on patrol for less than a year.
"He was full of faith," said Tate's stepfather, Lonnie Ross. "He loved the Lord and that gives us comfort knowing in our faith if you accept Jesus as your savior, this isn't the end, it's the beginning of eternity.
“There was one promise that we made the (families), and that was that we were going to find them, we were going to catch them and within hours, we did that.”
Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree
"He had that faith in God, and it was reflected in the way he treated people. He was respectful to everyone that met him, everyone he dealt with in his everyday job. He was always kind to people, and he represented the best in the Hattiesburg Police Department, no doubt about that."
DuPree offered a few more details in the case during a Sunday morning news conference.
DuPree said Deen had pulled over the vehicle, with Tate responding to a call for backup.
"An assailant exited the car and started shooting," DuPree said.
DuPree said Calloway was the driver of the dark-blue Hyundai Azera Limited with the retired Army military plate.
DuPree was asked to comment on the "erratic" actions of one of the suspects, who commandeered one of the patrolmen's cruisers to flee the scene before abandoning the vehicle a few blocks away near the train tracks at the end of East Front Street.
"The erratic part was the shooting," DuPree said. "The other was trying to get away."
But the mayor declined numerous requests for more information, saying that Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was handling the case.
"They have a task force that actually deals with this kind of incident," he said. "We do that because we want to make sure that we don't do anything to jeopardize the prosecution of these individuals."
DuPree instead praised the cooperation in helping track down the suspects.
"There was one promise that we made the (families), and that was that we were going to find them, we were going to catch them and within hours, we did that," DuPree said. "How did we do that? The public helped us do that and not only did the public help us, but we had law enforcement agencies from the federal government, from the state, from local areas around here .... If they were within earshot, those officers came."
He also asked that on a Mother's Day missing two sons, the community should unite even further.
"This is a time for us to come together," he said. "This is a time for us to love on each other. These are family members of our community. We want to honor them as family members of our community. We want the family to know that we love them."
And to remember them, while wishing that Saturday night never had happened.
"You don't wish this on anybody, especially when there are kids involved," Sherrill Owens said. "That's two more kids who are going to be told their entire lives that their daddy was a hero, and he was.
"But it doesn't make up for it."
Contributing: The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.
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