Abram Wade “Pete” Franklin, Fifth Person Arrested in Connection With Shooting Deaths of Mississippi Officers Benjamin Deen & Liquori Tate

5TH DIRTBAG ARRESTED IN THE SHOOTING DEATHS OF HATTIESBURG POLICE OFFICERS BENJAMIN DEAN AND LIQUORI TATE …

29 year old Abram Wade “Pete” Franklin of 507 North 38th Avenue in Hattiesburg  has been arrested and becomes the 5th suspect charged in connection with the shooting deaths of Hattiesburg police officers Benjamin Deen & Liquori Tate. Franklin has been charged with obstruction of justice in the murders of Deen and Liquori. Franklin is being held in the Forrest County Jail.

Others arrested in the two officers murders are 28 year old Cornelius Clark has been charged with obstruction of justice, Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder and Curtis Banks, 26.

Abram Wade “Pete” Franklin, 29, was charged with obstruction of justice

Authorities in Mississippi said late Wednesday that they had arrested a fifth person in connection with the murder of two Hattiesburg police officers over the weekend.

Abram Wade “Pete” Franklin, 29, was arrested by Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents and charged with obstruction of justice. He was being held in the Forrest County Jail pending an initial bond hearing. MBI spokesman Warren Strain declined to say what Franklin did to merit the charge.

Four others have already been charged in the Saturday shootings of Hattiesburg officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate and remain in jail. Marvin Banks, 29, is jailed without bond on two capital murder charges. His 22-year-old girlfriend, Joanie Calloway, and 26-year-old brother, Curtis Banks, are charged as accessories after the fact. A friend, 28-year-old Cornelius Clark, is charged with obstruction of justice.

4th Suspect Cornelius Clark Arrested in the Murders of Mississippi Police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate

4TH SUSPECT ARRESTED …

A fourth suspect has been arrested in the shooting deaths of Hattiesburg, MS police officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate. 28 year old Cornelius Clark has been charged with obstruction of justice. Officers Deen, 34, and Tate, 25, were fatally shot during a traffic stop on East Fourth Street in Hattiesburg shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday night. Previously,  Curtis Banks, 26, and Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22 were arrested in connection with the murder of the two police officers.

A memorial service for Hattiesburg patrolmen Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at Lake Terrace Convention Center.

 Ryan Moore @RyanMooreMS

Two Police Officers Have Been Shot in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (Update: Both Officers, Benjamin Deen & Liquori Tate Confirmed Dead)(Update: Suspects: Curtis Banks, Marvin Banks & Joanie Calloway Arrested)

IT HAS BECOME OPEN SEASON ON OUR MEN IN BLUE … TWO MORE POLICE OFFICERS HAVE BEEN SHOT IN HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI …

Two police officers have been shot in the line of duty in Hattiesburg, MS Saturday night in what began as a routine traffic stop. Sadly, it became much more violent as two police officers were gunned down. The two were taken to the hospital where later Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict confirmed the deaths of officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate.

We have said this over and over at SM, that for police officers, there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. A police officer never knows when they approach a vehicle, especially at night, who or what they are about to encounter when they pull some one over. With what happened in Hattiesburg, Mississippi is exactly why police act like they do when they approach a vehicle.

UPDATE I: Police Officers Identified as officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate.

Officer Benjamin Deen, left, and Officer Liquori Tate (HATTIESBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT)

The two Hattiesburg, Mississippi police officers that were murdered Saturday night following what was supposed to be a routine police stop were  34-year-old Benjamin Deen and 25-year-old Liquori Tate. One, was a great police officer and the other, a rookie to the force.  Deen as a past department “Officer of the Year” and Tate as a newcomer.  Tate was a recent graduate from the police academy who posted on his Facebook page that he graduated June 11 and thanked all who made it possible.

Tate graduated South Pike High School and attended Southwest Mississippi Community College before joining the Hattiesburg Police Department.

Deen, 34, was a K-9 officer. He was named HPD Officer of the Year in 2012.

UPDATE II: 2 Mississippi officers fatally shot; 3 suspects arrested.

Authorities arrested Curtis Banks, 26, and Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, early Sunday morning. They were taken to Troop J of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, where they were to be questioned by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Marvin Banks was charged with two counts of capital murder, grand theft auto, and a felon in possession of a firearm; Joanie Calloway was charged with two counts of capital murder; and Curtis Banks was charged with accessory after the fact of capital murder.

Three suspects were arrested Sunday after two police officers were shot and killed during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg, Miss. Two of the suspects were charged with capital murder.

Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict confirmed that both officers had died at Forrest General Hospital. Benedict identified the officers as Benjamin Deen, 34, of the Sumrall area and Liquori Tate, 25, of Hattiesburg.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. said Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder.

Banks was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was also charged with grand theft for fleeing in the police cruiser after the shooting, Strain said.

“He absconded with a Hattiesburg police cruiser. He didn’t get very far, three or four blocks and then he ditched that vehicle,” Strain said.

Banks’ 26-year-old brother, Curtis Banks, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.

Judge Maxwell Wiley Declared a Mistrial in the Etan Patz Missing Child/Murder Case … Single Holdout Said He Could Not Vote to Convict Pedro Hernandez

JUDGE DECLARES MISTRIAL EVEN THOUGH SUSPECT HAD CONFESSED TO THE CRIME …

On Friday, the Judge Maxwell Wiley declared a mistrial in the Etan Patz missing child/murder trial as the jury after deliberating for three weeks could not reach a unanimous verdict. In the end, a lobe juror was the hold out as the jury was deadlocked, 11-1. The lone holdout juror, Adam C. Sirois, said to reporters following the trial, “Ultimately I couldn’t find enough evidence that was not circumstantial to convict.  I couldn’t get there.” The lone juror, Juror #11, could not find it in himself to convict the kidnapping and murder suspect, Pedro Hernandez, who confessed to the murder? Etan Patz was the 6 year old boy who vanished while walking to a school bus stop in SoHo, NYC in 1979. His body has never been found.

A judge declared a mistrial in the Etan Patz case on Friday after jurors said for a third time that they could not reach a verdict despite three weeks of deliberation, leaving unresolved a missing-child case that vexed New York City for decades and led to a sea change in the way Americans view the security of their children.

After a four-month trial and 18 days of deliberation, the jury of seven men and five women said they were firmly deadlocked, 11 to 1, with a single holdout saying that he could not vote to convict Pedro Hernandez, 54, a disabled factory worker from New Jersey, of murder and kidnapping.

“Ultimately I couldn’t find enough evidence that was not circumstantial to convict,” the juror, Adam C. Sirois, told reporters during a news conference. “I couldn’t get there.”

Making it some what troubling for this mistrial and the decision by one lone juror not to convict Pedro Hernandez, who confessed to the murder. So what happens next? The mistrial leaves District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. with a difficult decision, to  either pursue another costly trial with the same evidence that failed to convince the first jury or allow a man who confessed to murdering a child to go free.

51 year old Pedro Hernandez has confessed to the murder of then 6 year old Etan Patz.  Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, NJ, has been arrested in the 1979 death and disappearance of Etan Patz. According to accounts, Hernandez admitted to luring the Etan into the store with candy, strangling him, and placing the body in a box. Hernandez stated that he put the box out with the trash and when he came back later, the box was gone.

A man has been arrested in the 1979 disappearance of a 6-year-old New York City boy. It’s the first arrest ever made in a case that helped give rise to the nation’s missing-children movement.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, N.J., has been arrested in the killing of Etan Patz (AY’-tahn payts). It’s not immediately clear whether Hernandez has a lawyer.

Kelly says Hernandez confessed to the crime. Hernandez worked at a convenience store near Etan’s Manhattan home. A law enforcement official says Hernandez told investigators this week he suffocated the boy and left his body in a box in an alley

Post Mistrial News Conference

Stanley Patz, the father of Etan, said following the judge declared a mistrial in the trial of his son’s murder, “We have come to the conclusion that Pedro Hernandez is guilty to crimes of which he has confessed beyond any reasonable doubt.” Mr. Patz stated following the mistrial that the family was very disappointed and frustrated that the jury was unable to come to a decision, “our long ordeal is not over”.

24 Year Old Michael Gordon Arrested & Charged with 1st Degree Murder in Death of SIU Student Taylor Clark Who was Selling His Car on Craigslist

ARREST MADE IN ANOTHER CRAIGSLIST MURDER …

24 year old Michael Gordon has been arrested and charged with the first degree murder of Southern Illinois University student Taylor Clark. The two came into contact each other after the 19 year old SIU student posted an ad to sell his car on Craiglist. Upon meeting at the MTC truck driver training center in Hazelwood, where Gordon was an employee, Gordon shot Clark on Monday while he was on his lunch hour and tried to hide the body. Gordon is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Michael Gordon Arrested for First Degree Murder

A Missouri man has been arrested on suspicion of shooting dead an Illinois college student looking to sell his car to the suspect during a meeting arranged through online classified website Craigslist, police said.

Michael Gordon, a 24-year-old St. Louis resident, was arrested on Tuesday and was being held in a county jail on $1 million bond, Florissant Police Department spokesman Tim Fagen told a news conference late on Wednesday.

The body of Taylor Clark, a civil engineering student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, according to his Twitter page, was found at the truck driver training center where Gordon worked.

“The victim and the suspect did connect through Craigslist after the victim listed a vehicle for sale,” Fagen told reporters. “They were going to meet and the vehicle was going to be looked at and test-driven.”

St. Louis Today – Police charge man in death of SIUE student, said they met through Craigslist ad.

The suspect is Michael Gordon, of the 4500 block of Mardel Avenue. Gordon is an employee of the MTC truck driver training center in Hazelwood, where Clark’s car and body were found Tuesday. He is being held at the St. Louis County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

He was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Gordon met Clark, 19, through a Craigslist ad that Clark had placed about the sale of his car, Florissant Police Capt. Tim Fagan said at a press conference Wednesday night.

He said Gordon had been in custody since Tuesday, when his name surfaced from emails found between him and Clark about the red 2007 Nissan 350ZX that Clark had listed for sale on the website.

Fagan said police believe Gordon shot Clark on Monday while Gordon was on his lunch hour. The shooting occurred on the parking lot of MTC and Clark’s body was found nearby. Fagan said there had been an attempt to cover it up.