Yeah, he's dead!
U.S. NEWS
DECEMBER 1, 2009, 7:26 A.M. ET.
By NICK WINGFIELD and BEN WORTHEN
SEATTLE -- Seattle police fatally shot the man suspected of killing four police officers Sunday, a sheriff's spokesman in Washington state said.
Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed early Tuesday in a Seattle neighborhood, the Associated Press reported. Authorities suspected Mr. Clemmons of killing the four Lakewood officers at a coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle.
Mr. Troyer says Seattle police found Mr. Clemmons after Pierce County authorities supplied addresses of possible hiding spots.
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Hundreds of officers, some with dogs, searched streets and woods Monday for Mr. Clemmons, 37 years old, as tips poured into police hot lines. Campus police at the University of Washington warned that Mr. Clemmons might be nearby and told students to be alert.
Police have said they aren't sure what prompted Mr. Clemmons to shoot the officers as they did paperwork on their laptops. Mr. Clemmons was described as increasingly erratic in the past few months.
Mr. Clemmons had an extensive and violent criminal history in Arkansas. He was recently arrested and charged in Pierce County on suspicion of third-degree assault on a police officer and second-degree rape of a child. He posted bail and was released Nov. 24.
In 1989, Mr. Clemmons, then age 17, was convicted of aggravated robbery in Little Rock, Ark. He was paroled in 2000 after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his 95-year prison sentence.
In an appearance on the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday, Mr. Huckabee said that had he known that Mr. Clemmons would be involved in such a crime "obviously I would have never granted this commutation."
"I'm responsible for that and it's not something I'm happy about," he said, adding "my heart is broken."
The killings could further cloud the prospects of Mr. Huckabee's seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2012, with some conservative bloggers criticizing him Monday for his role in the release of Mr. Clemmons. Mr. Huckabee said over the weekend on "Fox News Sunday" that he is leaning away from another bid for the GOP nomination unless the party is willing to unite behind him as a candidate.
Seattle police had surrounded a home late Sunday in the city's Leschi neighborhood near Lake Washington where they believed Mr. Clemmons was hiding. But by early Monday morning, they stormed the house and found he wasn't there. The search focused on the home after police received a tip, said a spokeswoman for the Washington State Patrol. Police said Mr. Clemmons lived near Tacoma.
Arrest warrants were issued Monday against Mr. Clemmons for first-degree murder in the quadruple slayings of the Lakeland officers, police said. Mr. Clemmons is armed and has a gunshot wound that he received during the ambush of the officers, police said.
Mr. Clemmons allegedly shot two of the Lakeland officers as they sat at a table Sunday morning at the Forza Coffee Company in neighboring Parkland. He is suspected of shooting a third officer who stood up, said Hunter George, spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff's department. The fourth officer struggled with the suspect and was believed to have shot him in the abdomen, Mr. George said. Police in Pierce County were also searching for Mr. Clemmons.
Lakewood, Wash., police officers at a news conference Monday at which Mayor Douglas Richardson called the killing of four officers a "complete act of cowardice."Police quickly identified their suspect after finding a blood-stained white pickup truck registered to Mr. Clemmons that they believe he used to flee the scene, according to the state patrol spokeswoman.
Mr. Clemmons had allegedly told acquaintances the night before the shooting that he was "going to shoot police and they should watch the news," Mr. George said.
Family members and colleagues recalled the four slain officers: Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; and Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards, 42, all of the Lakewood Police Department.
Mr. Richards -- survived by a wife and three children -- was "a wonderful man and a wonderful father," said Melanie Burwell, who identified herself as a sister-in-law. "He didn't have a mean bone in his body. All he ever wanted to do was come home and be with his family."
Mr. Richards played drums in a rock band, according to a remembrance posted on the Web site of the Lakewood Police Independent Guild by union president Brian Wurts.
Mr. Renninger, who is survived by a wife and three children, was the "most competent and tactically proficient man I ever knew in police work," Mr. Wurts wrote in his remembrance.
Mr. Wurts described Mr. Owens as "the laid back dirt bike riding, surfer hair having cop, you would always want at a party or with you on any call." Mr. Owens was divorced and had one daughter.
Ms. Griswold, a wife and mother of two, was "the toughest little cop I have ever known," Mr. Wurts wrote. Funeral plans hadn't been made final Monday. Families were deciding whether to hold separate ceremonies or a single one, said Ms. Burwell.
Lakewood police chief Bret Farrar told a news conference Monday that the slain officers were members of the department when it was formed in 2004. Lakewood, a suburb of Tacoma with a population of 58, 000, was incorporated in 1996.
Flanked by rows of uniformed officers, Mr. Farrar said he had met with the families of the slain officers. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done," he said, "and I hope I never have to do it again."