on the killing of Maurice Clemmons posted at about 8 a.m. this morning Eastern Time. Because of the practice of today’s Web-based newspapers and news services to publish multiple versions of the same story at the same address (which results in the disappearance of the earlier versions), there are many differences between this story and the updated version posted at about 11 a.m. Pacific Time. I’m not sure if the differences are significant or not. The later story, which I will post in a subsequent entry, tells in detail how Clemmons was apprehended and killed. The earlier story speaks of a “network of friends and family” who aided Clemmons’s escape. The later story doesn’t include that phrase.
Seattle police kill suspect in officer slayings
SEATTLE—The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by Seattle police early Tuesday, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Maurice Clemmons was shot to death in a working-class south Seattle neighborhood after police tracked him down using possible hiding spots supplied by Pierce County investigators, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the county sheriff.
Authorities say Clemmons, 37, killed the four Lakewood officers at a coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle.
Police said they aren’t sure what prompted Clemmons to shoot the officers as they did paperwork on their laptops. 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.
At the scene, a couple of dozen police officers milled around, shaking hands and patting each other on the back after one of the largest manhunts in the region’s history.
Clemmons had stayed on the run for nearly two days with help from a network of friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said. Troyer told Fox News police arrested three people overnight on suspicion of rendering criminal assistance. [emphasis added.]
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.
Police believe people close to Clemmons have misled officers, and Troyer said anyone helping him could face charges. Clemmons’ sister wasn’t in custody late Monday, and her name wasn’t released.
Authorities said the gunman singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop. He then fled, but not before he was apparently shot in the torso by one of the dying officers.
Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.
Troyer told the Tacoma News-Tribune that Clemmons indicated the night before the shooting “that he was going to shoot police and watch the news.”
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.
“We need to get him into custody and we need to end this,” Troyer said Monday night.
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. [LA notes: This is outrageously sloppy or dishonest reporting. The last three paragraphs create the impression that Huckabee in his interview on O’Reilly’s show denied any involvement with Clemmons’s release and said it was only due to a paperwork snafu. This is not true. Huckabee explained in detail why he gave Clemmons clemency, which led ultimately to his being released. Then he explained how Clemmons was later arrested on another charge, and how that later charge was dropped because of a paperwork error. Where I think Huckabee was being dishonest was in claiming that none of the relevant officials adviced him against the clemency.]
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.