Three officers killed serving a warrant

Two officers died in the apartment; one died outside the front door.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Three police officers were fatally shot as they tried to serve a warrant at a reputed crack house.
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.
Kerry Marquise Spencer, 24, and Woods, 27, were booked into jail on suspicion of capital murder, according to early reports by the Birmingham News. Formal charges could come as early as today.
Slain officers
City Hall spokesman Brett Oates identified the slain officers as Harley Chisholm III, 40; Charles Robert Bennett, 33; and Carlos Owen, 53, who had been on the force for 26 years. Chisholm was hired in 1998, and Bennett had been a Birmingham officer since 2001.
Friends of the officers told the Birmingham News that an officer patrolling the area had an argument with one of the men inside the apartment home about noon Thursday. The officer checked police records and found that Woods was wanted by Fairfield police on an assault charge.
Owen, Chisholm, Bennett and Mike Collins went to the home to serve the warrant. Owen and Chisholm entered the apartment through the back door to arrest Woods. He broke away and ran toward the front of the house, where Bennett was about to come through the front door.
All three officers were shot multiple times.
Two officers died in the apartment, just inside the back door in a small kitchen, according to the Birmingham News. 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.
Two police cars were hauled away from the scene, and it appeared a window of one had been shot out.
Police recovered an assault rifle in the bushes, according to the newspaper. It was unclear whether more than one gun was used in the shootings and whether any officers were able to return fire. Authorities said the crime scene was full of guns and bullet holes.
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