Four arrested after policemen killed
JACKSON: A man and woman in Mississippi were arrested and charged with murder yesterday after two police officers were shot dead a day earlier while conducting a traffic stop in Hattiesburg, officials said.
Authorities had launched a manhunt after at least one suspect fled the scene of the shooting in a police car which was later found abandoned.
Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder, police said.
Banks’ brother Curtis, 26, was also arrested and charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.
Police said a fourth man, Cornelius Clark, was arrested yesterday and booked on an obstruction of justice charge.
DuPree said members of the public quickly helped bring to justice those behind the first killing of a police officer in the city for more than 30 years.
The shooting happened on Saturday after Officer Benjamin Deen, 34, stopped a car, and Liquori Tate, a 25-year-old recent police academy graduate, arrived as back-up.
Two civilians called for help after finding the wounded officers. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.
DuPree said it was too early to discuss a possible motive, and that a probe was ongoing.
“We know the officer called for back-up for a reason… we’ll find that out,” he said.
State court records showed the Banks brothers were felons with arrests for firearms charges.
DuPree said Calloway had been driving the car at the time of the shooting. The suspects were arrested in different locations, police said.
Deen and Tate are the ninth and 10th law enforcement officers in the US shot dead by assailants this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a non-profit organisation that tracks police deaths in the line of duty. – Reuters