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(Tupelo, MS) The City of Tupelo remains in shock over the murder of a police officer and the shooting of another after a bank robbery.

This is a town where some people still leave their doors unlocked sometimes, but tonight, every door is locked, and every eye is on the lookout for cold-blooded killers.

”It’s scary. It’s sad. It makes me not want to go in the bank with my children anymore,” said Heather Krutz, who was just down the street from where bank robbers gunned down two police officers in the middle of busy Gloster Avenue.

Within a few hours, officers from state and federal law enforcement agencies had descended on Tupelo, casting a net for suspects that took in the entire north half of Mississippi.

That gave people here some comfort, just not enough.

”I’m glad they’re actually doing something about it. It takes a special breed of person actually to do something that low,” said Tupelo resident Matt Lavender.

Flags flew at half-staff at Tupelo City Hall Christmas Eve, as the Mayor prepared for a Christmas night vigil to remember murdered police sergeant Kevin “Gale” Stauffer.

”There will be a vigil in Fairpark at 5 p.m. tomorrow, just to honor and bring the community together in honor of Sergeant Stauffer and pray for him and his family,” said Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton.

Sargeant Stauffer leaves behind a wife, son, and daughter.

That’s made a big impact on families in Tupelo, who will hold their children a little closer this Christmas Eve.

“We were talking about how thankful she should be that she has her parents on Christmas Eve,” said Heather.

Every eye is looking for the suspect’s car, said to be a grey sedan.

They spotted one matching that description up the road in New Albany, but law enforcement sources say investigators checked it out and cleared their person of interest there.

BancorpSouth announced Tuesday evening a special memorial account for Sergeant Gale Stauffer’s family and an account for Officer Joseph Maher had been established.

Contributions may be made at any local BancorpSouth branch.

BancorpSouth will match contributions up to $10,000 for each account.