9th arrest made in HPD officers' deaths
A ninth person has been arrested in connection to the May 9 shooting deaths of two Hattiesburg patrolmen.
Brodrick Kendell Varnado, 25, of Hattiesburg, has been charged with accessory after the fact of capital murder, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Varnado is being held in the Forrest County Jail awaiting his initial appearance in Hattiesburg Justice Court.
Hattiesburg Police Department patrolmen Benjamin J. Deen and Liquori Tate each suffered single gunshot wounds during a traffic stop shortly before 8 p.m. May 9 on East Fourth Street near the intersection of Bouie Street a few blocks north of downtown Hattiesburg.
They died later that night at Forrest General Hospital.
MBI spokesman Warren Strain also confirmed Wednesday that Jimmy "Jimbo" Velton Brady had been arrested May 15 and had been charged with possession of a stolen weapon.
Details were unavailable about the charge or how it fit into the shooting.
Brady had bond revoked on a previous charge of aggravated domestic violence before Judge Robert Davis set bond at $20,000 on the stolen weapon possession charge.
Strain said MBI's investigation remained ongoing but declined any further details.
Two of the suspects charged in the shooting deaths are no longer being held at Forrest County Jail.
Douglas Diquan McPhail, 21, and Anquanette L. Alexander, 19, both of Hattiesburg, posted bond and were released on the same day the figure was set during their first appearances May 18 in Forrest County Justice Court.
Davis set bond at $15,000 for McPhail and $10,000 for Alexander. Both had been charged with rendering criminal assistance to a fleeing felon.
The state had requested bonds of $100,000 for both suspects, but Davis said the lower figures still were high enough to compel McPhail and Alexander to appear for their future court dates.
Alexander and McPhail were arrested May 15 by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation as the sixth and seventh people connected to the shooting deaths.
Marvin Banks, 29, of Hattiesburg is being held without bond on two counts of capital murder. He also was charged with grand larceny and possession of a weapon by a felon.
His younger brother, Curtis Banks, 26, and Joanie Calloway, 22, both of Hattiesburg, were charged with accessory after the fact to capital murder. Banks' bond was set at $100,000 by Forrest County Court Judge Gay Polk-Payton, while she set Calloway's at $75,000.
The Banks brothers and Calloway originally were taken into custody on May 9 or in the early morning hours of May 10.
A fourth suspect, Cornelius Clark, 28, of Hattiesburg, was arrested May 10 and charged with obstruction. Polk-Payton later set his bond at $75,000.
Polk-Payton remanded the quartet to the custody of Forrest County Sheriff's Department.
A fifth suspect, Abram Wade "Pete" Franklin, 29, was arrested May 13 and charged with obstruction. Polk-Payton set his bond at $75,000.
The Banks brothers, Calloway, Clark, Franklin and Brady all remain jailed in Forrest County.