A city plainclothes police detective was shot to death late Thursday night during an undercover drug operation in a shopping center parking lot.

Two men were quickly arrested and charged with the killing, including one who had been released from the city jail only hours before, authorities said.

Detective Michael Smith Phillips, 37, was shot at approximately 11 p.m. as he sat in his pickup truck with one of the suspects in the parking lot of the Green Run Shopping Center, trying to buy a half-pound of marijuana, said Virginia Beach police spokeswoman Margie Long.

The other suspect approached the truck from the driver's side and shot Phillips three times in the upper torso, police said. Long said it was not clear whether the suspects realized Phillips was a police officer or were simply trying to rob a customer.

After the shooting, one of the suspects stayed by the pickup truck trying to seize the "buy money" from the dying officer and was arrested immediately by other detectives who had been watching the undercover operation from less than 100 yards away, Long said.

The other suspect jumped into a vehicle and tried to escape but was caught a short distance away, Long said. Phillips was pronounced dead at the scene. Police would disclose no further details about the drug operation.

Police identified the suspects as 23-year-old Ted Vincent Carter and 26-year-old Marshall Demetrius Moyd, both of whom live near the shooting scene and have prior criminal records in Hampton Roads. Carter was convicted in 2006 of carrying a concealed weapon and Moyd was convicted in 2001 of drug and gun charges, according to online court records.

Moyd had been released from Virginia Beach jail earlier Thursday after posting bond on a charge of failure to appear in court on a traffic offense, according to court records and police.

Long would not say which man is accused of shooting Phillips. Both men are charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, and conspiracy to violate the Drug Conspiracy Act. Both made brief court appearances yesterday and are next scheduled for court Aug. 22.

Another police spokesman, officer Adam Bernstein, said Phillips had worked for the Virginia Beach police for nearly six years, including the last two as a member of the department's special investigations unit. He previously had spent three years working for the Hampton Police Department.

He leaves behind a wife and two sons, ages 12 and 8. Family members, speaking through the police department yesterday, asked for privacy.

The last Virginia Beach officer killed in the line of duty was Rodney F. Pocceschi, 33, who died in a shootout in June 2003 after a traffic stop on Dam Neck Road. Police said the 21-year-old suspect, who also died, had been involved in a robbery shortly before Pocceschi pulled him over.