Joanie Calloway was charged with capital murder in the deaths of two Hattiesburg police officers. (Hattiesburg Police)
Police have arrested the girlfriend of a 29-year-old man accused of shooting two Hattiesburg, Mississippi police officers during a traffic stop Saturday night.
Joanie Calloway, 22, was arrested Sunday morning along with her boyfriend, 29-year-old Marvin Banks, according to The Clarion-Ledger. Banks’ younger brother, Curtis, was also arrested.
A rookie officer, 25-year-old Liquori Tate, and decorated K-9 officer Benjamin Deen, 34, were killed in the shooting.
Here’s what you need to know about Calloway and the shooting:
1. She Was in the Car With Marvin Banks When He Shot the Officers, Police Say
Joanie Calloway. (Facebook)
Police said Joanie Calloway, 22, who was arrested Sunday morning, was driving the car that was stopped by police before the shooting occurred. Marvin Banks, the accused shooter, was a passenger in the car.
Marvin Banks and Calloway, his girlfriend, were both charged with two counts of capital murder. Marvin was also charged with grand theft auto and possession of a firearm by a felon. His brother, Curtis, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder. Police said he was not in the car when the shooting occurred.
Police told The Associated Press that one of the officers stopped a gold 2000 Cadillac Escalade SUV in an industrial area. The second officer arrived as backup and the shots were fired at them.
The suspects fled from the shooting in a police car belonging to one of the officers, according to The Clarion-Ledger. The newspaper reported that the vehicle was later located after it was abandoned by the suspects.
The shooting happened at Gordon and East Fourth streets.
2. She Attended a Local Community College
Joanie Calloway. (Facebook)
According to her Facebook page, Calloway attended Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Mississippi. She lives in Oak Grove, Mississippi and is originally from Beaumont.
3. One of the Officers Graduated From the Police Academy Last Year & the Other Was a Decorated K-9 Officer
Liquori Tate, 25, joined the Hattiesburg police force in 2014 after graduating from the police academy. The other officer, 34-year-old Benjamin Deen, worked as a K-9 officer.
Tate is from Hattiesburg and Deen is from the Sumrall area, the Forrest County Coroner told the Hattiesburg American.
Deen was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 2012, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
HPD officer Deen was a great friend, and a great officer. Deen training with his K9 Tomi. http://t.co/kD6N191rgt
4. One of the Officers Said ‘Am I Dying? I Know I’m Dying’ After They Were Found by Passersby
Another view of the scene #WDAM http://t.co/XIYWM2Al4p
Tamika Mills and Pearnell Roberts found the officers after they drove past the scene, they told the Clarion-Ledger. After one of the women saw someone laying on the ground, they stopped to check and called 9-1-1.
Mills told the newspaper:
Never in my life have I experienced or seen anything like this expect on TV and to be in the midst of it, it’s shocking and heartbreaking. As we were coming down Fourth Street, we noticed a bunch of lights. As we came on through, (Roberts) told me to turn around because she saw somebody laying on the ground.
So I backed up. That’s when we noticed the officer was down. We just saw that one, but in the course of me being on the phone with 9-1-1, I turned and I saw another officer across the street rolling on the ground. (Roberts) ran across the street to check on him. He wasn’t all the way alert but he asked her, ‘Am I dying? I know I’m dying. Just hand me my walkie-talkie.’
The officers were taken to a nearby hospital and were pronounced dead there.
5. The Officers’ Line of Duty Deaths Are the First in Hattiesburg in 30 Years
Jackie Dole Sherrill was the last Hattiesburg, Mississippi police officer killed in the line of duty. She was fatally shot New Year’s Eve 1984. (Hattiesburg Police Department photo)
The last line of duty death in Hattiesburg, a city of about 47,000 people in southern Mississippi, was in 1984. Sergeant Jackie Dole Sherrill was killed on New Year’s Eve that year, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
According to the Hattiesburg city website, Sherrill and other officers were serving a felony warrant when Sherrill was fatally wounded by another officer’s weapon during a struggle with the suspect. She was the first female police officer in Hattiesburg and its first detective. She was also the first female officer to be killed in the line of duty in Mississippi.
“Thirty years ago was the last time that this has happened in Hattiesburg, and we’ve had a lot to happen over the past 15 years with tornadoes and storms,” Mayor Johnny DuPree said at a news conference. “But you never want this to happen.”
Three other officers have been killed in the line of duty in the department’s history: Officer Jessie James Everett (March 9, 1952); Officer M.W. Vinson Jr. (March 9, 1952) and Sgt. David Anthony (May 23, 1973).
Everett and Vinson were fatally shot during a shootout with a suspect wanted for a burglary. The officers had witnessed a man and woman leave the scene of a break-in in a vehicle. After stopping the vehicle a short time later, they exchanged gunfire with one of the suspects and were both killed.
Anthony was fatally shot while responding to a bank robbery.
The department recently dealt with the off-duty death of another young officer.
Zac Denny, 25, died in October 2014 after he was involved in a car crash while off-duty. Denny had been with the department for about three years. His father is a 20-year veteran of the force.