Liquori Tate after he was sworn in as a Hattiesburg police officer. (Facebook)
A rookie officer who had been serving on his hometown police force for less than a year was gunned down Saturday night during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Liquori Tate, 25, and another officer, 34-year-old Benjamin Deen, were killed in the shooting.
Four arrests have been made in connection with the slayings, including the alleged shooter, Marvin Banks, 29, his 22-year-old girlfriend, Joanie Calloway, and his younger brother, 26-year-old Curtis Banks. Marvin Banks and Calloway, the driver of the vehicle stopped by the police, were charged with two counts each of capitol murder. Curtis Banks, who was not in the car, was charged with accessory after the fact of capitol murder.
Cornelius Clark, 28, was a passenger in the vehicle and has been charged with obstruction of justice.
Here’s what you need to know about Tate and the shooting:
1. Tate Responded to the Traffic Stop to Provide Backup For the Other Officer
Marvin Banks, Joanie Calloway and Curtis Banks have been charged in connection with the deaths of two Hattiesburg, Mississippi police officers. (Police photos)
Police told The Associated Press that Officer Benjamin Deen stopped a gold 2000 Cadillac Escalade SUV in an industrial area. Deen called for backup and Tate responded to help him.
After the shooting, Marvin Banks fled 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. Police have not said why Deen stopped the Escalade. They have also not said what led to the shooting.
2. Tate Wanted to be a Police Officer From a Young Age
Liquori Tate with his younger siblings. (Facebook)
Tate’s family told The Clarion-Ledger that he wanted to be a police officer from a young age. He graduated from the police academy in the summer of 2014 and was named the top marksman in his class, his family said. He then joined his hometown police department.
(Facebook)
“He was full of faith. 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,” said his stepfather Lonnie Ross told the newspaper. “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 every day job. He was always kind to people, and he represented the best in the Hattiesburg Police Department, no doubt about that.”
Youlander Ross, his mother said he was always playing with police cars and had a “protective spirit.”
“He really knew the risk. But I think my son just thought people are generally good, and that’s just the way he was,” his father, Ronald Tate, told CNN. “He thought people are generally good people, so let’s treat them all with dignity.”
3. His Sister Said He Was Protective of Her and Their Siblings
Liquori Tate with his sister. (Facebook)
Tate’s sister, Alonte, called told CNN that he was always looking after her, even though she was the older sibling.
“He was more like a big brother to me. He would constantly come by in his patrol car around our apartment just to check on me,” Alonte Tate said. “He would call, send me a text message, just making sure I was all right.”
Alonte Tate said she talked to her brother not long before he was shot.
His stepfather told CNN that Tate was a “rock star” among his younger siblings.
“He could have gone into drugs, or joined a gang,he was exposed to those things,” his stepfather, Lonnie Ross, told The Clarion-Ledger. “But he got saved, he met the Lord and turned his life around, and instead of going into the direction of gangs and violence, he worked hard.”
4. One of the Officers Said ‘Am I Dying? I Know I’m Dying’ After They Were Found by Passersby
Officer Benjamin Deen, with his K-9 Tomi, left, and Officer Liquori Tate were gunned down in Hattiesburg. (Facebook/Hattiesburg Police photo)
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.
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.
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.”
Sherrill’s daughter, Erica Sherrill Owens, went to high school with Officer Benjamin Deen, who was killed Saturday night.
“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 told the Hattiesburg American. “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.”
She said she heard her father, former police officer Charlie Sherrill, on the phone with a friend, “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.”
Sherrill Owens, who was 3 when her mother was killed, said of her mother’s death, “I always hoped that she would be the last. Mother’s Day, it’s always a tough day, but this, this is worse.”
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.