HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Mourning for two slain Mississippi police officers will continue this week, with their funerals set for Thursday and Saturday.
Hattiesburg police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate died last week after a suspect shot them during a traffic stop, authorities say.
Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home said the 34-year-old Deen, a former Hattiesburg "Officer of the Year" who was married and had two children, will be buried Thursday in nearby Sumrall after a funeral in Hattiesburg.
Craft Funeral Home in McComb said a funeral will be held Saturday in Hattiesburg for the 25-year-old Tate, with burial for the 2014 police academy graduate to follow in Starkville.
More than 1,000 attended a Monday memorial in Hattiesburg for the officers. Preliminary autopsy results indicated Deen was shot in the face and Tate in the back. The 29-year-old Banks, who had already done two stints in state prison, faced unresolved drug charges when Deen pulled his girlfriend over for speeding just after sundown Saturday.
But instead of escaping the possibility of more prison time, Banks is now jailed without bond on two capital murder charges.
Banks pleaded guilty in 2010 to possession of a stolen handgun. He got a split sentence and was released from prison after serving about a year. But he returned to prison after violating terms of his release.
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said Monday that when Deen stopped a vehicle driven by 22-year-old Joanie Calloway, he decided to search the vehicle. After Tate arrived as backup, Deen asked Banks, Calloway and passenger Cornelius Clark to get out.
At that point, Strain said, Banks shot Deen and Tate. Both officers were wearing bullet resistant vests that couldn't protect them against the gunshots.
Banks then stole a police cruiser, which he abandoned a few blocks away. Police later arrested him at motel more than 5 miles away.
The charges could be the bottom of what Banks' mother, Mary Smith, describes as a downward spiral for her son. Smith said that when she saw the booking photos of her 26-year-old son, she knew something was off.
"He was sick and out of his head, and I tried to get him some help," she said Monday morning on the steps of the Forrest County Courthouse, where she had gone to find out more information about the arrest.
Banks had been smoking synthetic marijuana, known as spice, every day, Smith said.
"He was on that spice. He was on every drug there was. Spice, powder, marijuana, drinking," she said.
Calloway had been charged with two counts of murder, but authorities decreased those charges Monday. Clark, 28, is charged with obstruction. Banks' younger brother, 26-year-old Curtis Banks, is charged as an accessory to murder, apparently for driving his brother and Clark to the locations where they were arrested.
Strain said all four have given statements to police.
At an initial court appearance Monday, Forrest County Justice Court Judge Gay Polk-Payton denied bond to Marvin Banks. Banks is also charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and with grand theft for fleeing a few blocks in a squad car after the shooting.
Polk-Payton set Curtis Banks' bond at $100,000. But, like his brother, Curtis Banks faced a pending drug charge, and Polk-Payton revoked that bond, meaning Curtis Banks is also likely to remain in jail. The judge set $75,000 bonds for both Calloway and Clark.
All four have been assigned public defenders.
More than 1,000 people filled a hall at the Hattiesburg convention center Monday for a memorial for the officers. With photos of the uniformed men projected above the stage, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant — himself a former sheriff's deputy — said the city was enduring a difficult, sad time.
"We will persevere. We will prevail," Bryant said.
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