Three Birmingham, Ala., police officers killed during arrest attempt

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) _ Three police officers were fatally shot at an apartment house as they tried to serve a warrant on a man who lived there. <br/><br/>The officers were killed Thursday when they went

Friday, June 18th 2004, 11:48 am

By: News On 6

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) _ Three police officers were fatally shot at an apartment house as they tried to serve a warrant on a man who lived there.

The officers were killed Thursday when they went to the apartment house with a fourth officer to arrest Nathaniel Lauell Woods on a misdemeanor domestic assault warrant, said Police Chief Annetta Nunn. The fourth officer was not injured.

Nunn, struggling to maintain her composure, called the slayings a tragedy: ``This is something that seems unimaginable.''

The deaths marked the third time in just over a year that two or more police officers have been gunned down in Alabama.

Woods, 27, and Kerry Marquise Spencer, 24, were booked into jail on suspicion of capital murder.

At least two other people also were in custody and all were being questioned, City Hall spokesman Brett Oates said Friday.

The district attorney's office said formal charges could come later.

Chief deputy coroner Jay Glass identified the slain officers as Harley Chisholm III, 40; Charles Robert Bennett, 33; and Carlos Owen, 58. Owen had been on the force for 26 years.

Chisholm and Owen were found dead in the rear of the house, Glass said, and Bennett's body was outside the front of the home. All three officers were shot multiple times.

Glass said investigators told him the officers were shot with a high-powered SKS assault rifle, but autopsies were being performed to confirm the type of rounds used.

The Birmingham News reported that the officer outside the front door was able to make a final radio call for help before a bullet struck him in the head.

Friends of the officers gave this account to the newspaper: One officer patrolling the area had an argument with one of the men inside the apartment about noon Thursday. The officer checked police records and found that Woods was wanted by Fairfield police on a third-degree assault charge.

Four officers went to the home, and shots were fired after Woods broke away from Owen and Chisholm, who had entered through the back door. Bennett was entering at the front about the same time.

The fourth officer, Mike Collins, was not shot, though the newspaper reported that one bullet deflected off his holster. It was unclear if any officers returned fire; none of the suspects or other civilians suffered gunshot wounds.

The two suspects were arrested at a nearby house by officers who responded to the shootings.

Police recovered an assault rifle in the bushes, according to the newspaper.

The shootings happened in a low-income neighborhood of modest, older homes.

Herman Harris, who said he lives in the area, and other neighbors said the house has a reputation as a crack house. ``They're all the time out back doing drugs,'' Harris said.

Nunn said no drugs were found at the house Thursday.

Two police officers and a dispatcher were shot to death at the police station in Fayette on June 7, 2003. On Jan. 2, two Athens policemen were shot in an ambush after they were called to a home. A suspect has been charged with murder in each case, and each has pleaded innocent by reason of mental disease or defect.