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 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 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.
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 also faces other charges. He says officers
arrested the three Hattiesburg residents at different locations
overnight without resistance following Saturday night's deadly shooting.
It wasn't immediately known if those arrested had lawyers.
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.
