4 officers killed

Please pray for the families of the officers, and that this scumbag is quickly caught.


4 Officers Slain in Coffee Shop Ambush
AP
posted: 59 MINUTES AGO
comments: 151
filed under: Crime News, National News
PRINT|E-MAILMORE
Text SizeAAA
TACOMA, Wash. (Nov. 29) — Four police officers were shot and killed Sunday morning in what authorities called a targeted ambush at a coffee house in Washington state, a sheriff's official said.
Officials at the scene told The News Tribune in Tacoma two gunmen burst into the Forza Coffee Co. and shot the four uniformed officers as they were working on their laptop computers, then fled the scene.
Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said investigators believe the officers were targeted, and it was not a robbery.
Troyer tells the newspaper "it was just a flat out ambush."
He could not immediately say what agency the officers were from. Police were searching for two suspects and interviewing witnesses. The coffee shop is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle.
"We hopefully will have answers, but there is nothing more we can tell you," Troyer told KING-TV. "That's as cold-hearted as it is."
Roads were blocked around the attack. A witness driving past told the newspaper he saw an officer on the ground just after the shootings.
Last month, Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton was shot and killed Halloween night as he was sitting in a cruiser with trainee Britt Sweeney. Sweeney was grazed in the neck.
Christopher Monfort, 41, of suburban Tukwila, was charged in the shooting. Days after the shooting, Seattle detectives attempted to question Monfort at his residence. Police say that Monfort then ran from the detectives and tried to use a gun. The detective shot him.
Authorities also linked Monfort to the October firebombing of four police vehicles, with prosecutors saying Monfort waged a "one-man war" against law enforcement.
Monfort remained hospitalized.

This was a horrific event. There have always been lots of reasons not to gather together and to give the appearance that 'you can always find us right here all together - same time each morning, afternoon, night'. Posts without a slow moving patrol through communities because we are all together off our posts parked and giving the appearance of doing nothing. Now, with the horrible economy and with the public buying into holding out to the very last minute to cut law enforcement, there are many, many "20's" out there without a job and in a bad situation. We are living in a time when good people are doing very strange things due to changes taking place in their lives they never expected and on a National level and Global level.....bad. Think about your tour of duty. How many of us meet at a gas station together, a restaurant, a mall. Now, more than ever it is in our best interest for many good reasons to keep our cars moving slowly through our communities on our posts/zones. No need to buddy up. A supervisor can move his/her butt to us to consult....we have cell phones. It is what we are being paid to do anyway and much safer.

Last poster, the buddy system is a sure fire way to make sure we DO NOT get ambushed. We should NEVER be sitting in a coffee shop or restaurant solo. I won't go to lunch in uniform by myself for this very reason. If I am sitting facing south, then my fellow officer sitting across from me in the table (facing north) can watch my back and identify threats. If there are four of us at a table, then there are 8 eyes looking for threats. Like every single critical incident, unless you were one of the cops who was there or the scum bag, you will never know the exact specifics of exactly what occurred. Do not monday morning quaterback these dead - may God comfort their families and I pray to see them in Heaven one day. Learn from this instead and remember to always go in pairs and always keep your eyes open for threats while in uniform. Increasingly more than ever all we have is each other to count on.
7587

SEATTLE – The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car early Tuesday. Four people were arrested for allegedly helping the suspect elude authorities during a massive two-day manhunt.

Maurice Clemmons was carrying a handgun he took from one of the dead officers when a Seattle policeman recognized him near a stolen car in a working-class south Seattle neighborhood about 2:45 a.m., Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said.

The vehicle was running but unoccupied when the officer pulled up, radioed in the license plate number and realized the car was stolen, Pugel said.

The officer saw something moving, got out of his car, saw Clemmons and ordered him to show his hands and stop.

"He wouldn't stop," Pugel said. "The officer fired several rounds."

Clemmons also had sustained a serious gunshot wound from one of the four officers killed in the coffee-shop shooting.

Police planned to arrest more people who helped Clemmons.

"We expect to have maybe six or seven people in custody by the day's end," said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff. "Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime."

Three people were booked into the Pierce County Jail on Monday and early Tuesday for investigation of rendering criminal assistance on four counts of first-degree murder. They are Ricky Hinton, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis. Troyer said a getaway driver also was arrested. That person's identity wasn't immediately known.

On Monday, officers detained a sister of Clemmons who they think treated the suspect's gunshot wound.

"We believe she drove him up to Seattle and bandaged him up," Troyer said.

Authorities say Clemmons, 37, singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before one of the dying officers apparently shot him in the torso.

"I'm surprised that he managed to get away," Troyer said. "The officer did a good job in Lakewood."

Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

A couple dozen police officers milled around at the scene where Clemmons apparently was shot, shaking hands and patting each other on the back later Tuesday morning. The officer who shot Clemmons was not injured, Pugel said.

Police said they aren't sure what prompted Clemmons to shoot the four officers, who were in uniform and working on paperwork at the coffee shop just two blocks outside their jurisdiction.

"The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers," Troyer said. He said Clemmons talked the night before the shooting about killing a group of cops and watching the news.

Police believe Clemmons chose the coffee shop because it was frequented by police officers from various agencies.

"We do not believe that the Lakewood officers were actually targeted other than that they were police officers in that location at the time where he knew he could find police officers."

Clemmons was described as increasingly erratic in the past few months and had been arrested earlier this year on charges that he punched a sheriff's deputy in the face.

Police surrounded a house in a Seattle neighborhood late Sunday following a tip Clemmons had been dropped off there. After an all-night siege, a SWAT team entered the home and found it empty. But police said Clemmons had been there.

Police frantically chased leads on Monday, searching multiple spots in the Seattle and Tacoma area and at one point cordoning off a park where people thought they saw Clemmons.

Authorities found a handgun carried by the killer, along with a pickup truck belonging to the suspect with blood stains inside. They posted a $125,000 reward for information leading to Clemmons' arrest and alerted hospitals to be on the lookout for a man seeking treatment for gunshot wounds.

Authorities in two states were criticized amid revelations that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime spree in Arkansas that landed him an 108-year prison sentence. He was released early after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.

Huckabee cited Clemmons' youth in granting the request. But Clemmons quickly reverted to his criminal past, violated his parole and was returned to prison. He was released again in 2004.

"This guy should have never been on the street," said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood. "Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out."

Huckabee said on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday night that Clemmons was allowed back on the street because prosecutors failed to file paperwork in time.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley, whose office opposed Clemmons' parole in 2000 and 2004, said Huckabee's comments were "red herrings."

"My word to Mr. Huckabee is man up and own what you did," Jegley said.

Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.

But he was released from jail after posting bail with the assistance of Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.

Documents related to those charges indicate a volatile personality. In one instance, he is accused of gathering his wife and young relatives and forcing them to undress.

"The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus," a Pierce County sheriff's report said.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Seattle, Rachel La Corte in Tacoma, George Tibbits in Seattle, Andrew DeMillo and Jill Zeman Bleed in Little Rock, Ark., and photographers Elaine Thompson in Seattle and Ted S. Warren in Parkland, Wash

Buddy system didn' seem to work for these poor folks. usually, when we are togetheer, there is a false security and we are all complaining or laukghing at somebody. nobody is in tactical thought watching anything except maybe some chick walking by. i agree with other poster stay alone and do your job on your post carry your luknch to work and eat on your zone. or slip in a grab something and eat under a tree on your zone. it is the job. be thankful.

WHEN I RETIRE ITS CHARLES BRONSON JUSTICE FOR ME, THAT S THE ONLY WAY IT SEEMS...