POLICE SAY SHOOTER AMONG 3 ARRESTED

Three Birmingham police officers were slain and a fourth narrowly escaped
death in Ensley Thursday after a confrontation at what neighbors and police
called a drug house.

What should have been a routine arrest on a misdemeanor assault
warrant turned deadly at 1:18 p.m. when someone inside the apartment
house sprayed officers with an SKS assault rifle.

Two officers died in the apartment, just inside the back door in a
small kitchen. A third officer died just outside the front door, able
only to make a final radio call for help for his fellow officers
before a bullet struck him in the head.

Police officials believe it is the first time more than one Birmingham
police officer has been killed in a single incident. The last police
officer killed in Birmingham was officer Jerome Daniels, slain during
a robbery in November 2002.

Those killed Thursday were Carlos "Curly" Owen, 58; Charles Bennett,
33; and Harley Chisholm III, 40. All worked the day shift at the West
Precinct, just blocks from where they were gunned down. Owen, whose
decorated career on the force spanned nearly three decades, was
nearing retirement.

Kerry Marquise Spencer, 24, and Nathaniel Woods, 27, were booked into
the Birmingham City Jail at 10:30 p.m. on suspicion of capital murder.
Formal charges could come as early as today.

Their arrests followed a two-hour manhunt involving dozens of officers
that spanned only two blocks.

Arrests were made at 1736 18th St. in Ensley, where authorities
captured one man on the front porch. Police later took a tracking dog
up a ladder and broke through an attic vent to take a second man in
custody. Arresting officers said they screamed at the second man
togive up and found him "cowering" in the attic.

Police recovered the assault rifle in the bushes outside the apartment
where the officers died. It was unclear whether more than one gun was
used in the shootings and whether any police officers were able to
return fire. Authorities said the crime scene was full of guns and
bullet holes.

"This is something that seems unimaginable," said Birmingham Police
Chief Annetta Nunn.

Ensley residents at the scene openly grieved the loss of their beat
officer, Owen: One woman said he brought her coffee once; a man standing
nearby sobbed and said Owen came to visit him when he was shot. Chisholm
joined the department in 1998; Bennett in 2001.

"Carlos loved catching crooks. After all these years, he was still
dedicated, still wanted to put the bad guys away," said narcotics
Officer Jim Hickey, a former West Precinct officer. "Chisholm and
Bennett were cut from the same cloth."

Rifle-toting police officers and federal agents from a dozen agencies
in the Jefferson County area swarmed to the Tuxedo neighborhood, an
older, low-to moderate-income community in search of the gunman or
gunmen.

Police worked throughout the night trying sort out several versions of
events.

Sorting things out:

Friends of the officers gave this account: One officer had a verbal
run-in with Woods midday Thursday while he was on routine patrol. The
officer checked police records and found Woods was wanted on a
third-degree assault charge from February.

Once they had the warrant in hand, Owen, Chisholm, Bennett and Mike
Collins went to the one-story house that contained several apartments.
Owen and Chisholm entered the apartment through the back door to
arrest Woods. He broke away from them and ran toward the front of the
house, where Bennett was about to come through the front door.

That's when shots were fired. All three officers, shot multiple times,
were dead on the scene.

Collins was on his way toward Bennett in the front when bullets
whizzed at him. A bullet struck his holster and tore a hole through
his back pocket.

Police said he was shaken, but not wounded.

The shootings, the search and the fallout paralyzed that corner of
Ensley for much of the afternoon. Knots of people clustered at every
corner, some praying it was not an officer they knew.

Police cars and SUVs, ambulances, firetrucks, SWAT vehicles and a
police command unit congregated in front of a neighborhood church.
Officers in uniform and plainclothes scurried about, talking over
radios and gazing through binoculars.

Police told area business owners to lock their doors while they hunted
for the assailants. They searched the area street by street, checking
houses, car trunks and trash bins.

A few blocks over, a West Precinct police officer rolled down his
patrol car window and sobbed. After wiping his eyes, he glanced up and
said, "Those are my friends."

A neighborhood in shock:

Neighbors appeared to be in shock. Some talked frantically over cell
phones, others embraced. Little children looked lost.

"I live six blocks from where it happened," said James Davenport. "I
have lived here all my life, and I've never been afraid. Lord, this is
devastating to me."

Joseph Black, president of the Central Pratt Neighborhood, said he was
disgusted by the killings.

"They ought to just have an execution tomorrow morning," Black said.

The Rev. Dean Pesnell, a chaplain at Birmingham police headquarters,
said Thursday was "absolutely, without doubt" the toughest assignment
he's faced.

It fell to Pesnell and other chaplains to notify the officers' families.

"They are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,"
Pesnell said. "They are very upset. We are all upset. I was an officer
myself. The only way I can get through this is knowing that God is
with me. We ask for prayers, prayers, prayers." News staff writers Kim
Bryan, Val Walton, Anne Ruisi, Chanda Temple, Vivi Abrams, Bill Plott,
Victoria L. Coman, Michelle Q. Guffey and Robert Gordon contributed to
this report.