Here is a little more in depth story.
Police chief: 'Three officers are gone'
Birmingham policemen slain while serving arrest warrant
By DANIEL JACKSON and TAYLOR BRIGHT
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
Veteran police Officer Carlos Owens could have retired years ago, but he chose to stay with the Birmingham Police Department because he loved the job. On Thursday, Owens and two fellow officers sacrificed their lives while performing that job.
"He was a great officer. He always showed great enthusiasm. This is something that seems unimaginable. Three officers are gone," Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn said.
As Owens lay dead, a tow truck pulled his squad car No. 431 down 18th Street in Ensley, a neighborhood where he patrolled for many years. Some residents said Owens, whom they called "Curly," was a legend. Nunn said he had been with the department at least 25 years.
In the same house where Owens was shot, Officers Charles Robert Bennett and Harley Chisholm, all from the West Precinct, died in the deadliest day in the Police Department's history. Officer Michael Collins was shot at but was not injured, Nunn said.
Nunn said investigators found no evidence of drugs at the house where the officers were slain, 1619 18th St. Ensley.
Neighbor Bryan Dawkins said he heard the gunshots while he was sitting at his computer desk at 1:19 p.m.
"It was an automatic (weapon). There were at least 15 shots fired," said Dawkins, who stood behind yellow crime scene tape with hundreds of curious Ensley residents. "Later, I found out that someone had a gunfight with the police. That's just sad."
Neighbors said they knew the officers by the street names, "Curly," "Robocop," and "Chisel." Owens, Chisholm and Bennett were fatally shot while serving a misdemeanor arrest warrant on 27-year-old Nathaniel Lauell Woods, police reported. The warrant involved a domestic assault. However, police believe another man in the house fired the fatal shots. A weapon was recovered at the house, but police did not identify the type of gun used in the shootings.
The man police believe fired the shots, Woods and at least three other people were taken into custody and were being questioned by police after officers in SWAT armor raided an old wooden home at 1736 18th St. Ensley. Police did not identify the other people police have questioned.
Municipal records show Woods has several prior convictions, including criminal trespassing, reckless driving, driving without a state driver's license, possession of marijuana, city probation violation, failure to appear in court and drinking in public. Woods listed a Fairfield address as his current residence, records indicate.
Police cordoned off several blocks Thursday afternoon and went door to door questioning neighbors and searching for people in abandoned homes.
Shortly after the shootings, a group of officers armed with shotguns and assault rifles approached three residents standing in their front yard to ask them if they had someone. The residents said they had no information for the police.
The man "just killed three officers, and Curly (Owens) was one of them," said a police officer holding a shotgun. "You better get over your amnesia and find him because if we find him, he's ... dead."
"No, not my buddy Curly," said a woman who joined the three men in their front yard. "They (the gunmen) are going to start a war around here."
At a home across the street, an officer used the butt of his rifle to push the front door open while another used his handgun to break a window. He went inside followed by several of his fellow officers and searched the house, but did not find the man.
Shortly before 3 p.m., the police converged on a house in the middle of their search area, a block away from where the shooting occurred. Running toward the house in a full sprint, guns out, police surrounded the home as neighbors watched 30 feet away.
A police officer in civilian clothes tried to get the crowd away from the house as quickly as the officers had surrounded it.
"In your house! It's too dangerous! There's still a loaded gun out here!
"Get in your house! Bullets ain't got no names!
"Let's go!" the officer yelled.
At 1736 18th St. Ensley, police pulled out three men and one woman.
Police climbed a ladder to the roof of the housewith a police dog. The officer knocked out the vent with a yellow-headed sledge hammer, and the dog went into the attic but didn't find anybody.
Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid and City Council members Bert Miller, Lee Loder, Carol Reynolds and Joel Montgomery visited the crime scene, where many officers were distraught, praying and crying.
Anthony Mitchell, who lives on 16th Street in Ensley, said he knew Owens well and had recently spoke to him about his upcoming retirement.
"He was supposed to retire next year ... ," Mitchell said. "They (the officers) never bothered me. They had a job to do. If they didn't patrol, who was going to protect the people? It's a shame this happened."
Another Ensley resident, Larry Thompson, said Owens visited him every day at his home after he was shot in 1995.
"He was just a nice guy," Thompson said, wiping tears from his eyes. "He just got through asking about my brother 20 minutes ago."
Other residents and onlookers showed no remorse for the victims, who they say spent much of their time harassing residents.
"He had it coming. He had what he had coming to him," said a brother of one of the people taken into custody. "Why don't they find bin Laden? Instead, they're trying to find a ... in the 'hood."
Members of the Birmingham Civil Rights Activist Committee also visited the crime scene to speak with neighbors. Shirley Floyd, a committee spokeswoman, said her organization is working to end gang violence in Birmingham.
"The critical factor here is drugs," Floyd said. "We fought and marched to keep this very type of thing from happening in the city."
Post-Herald staff members Stephen Sisk, Jamie Kizzire, James Diffee and Christine Prichard contributed to this story.
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