Posted on 11/30/2009 1:43:20 PM PST by myknowledge
Police trying to hunt down a man suspected of the execution-style killings of four of their colleagues burst into a house in Seattle today after spending the night trying to talk him out of the building - only to find that he was not there.
The setback came after a night of loudspeaker warnings, explosions and gunshots all apparently designed to flush Maurice Clemmons, a convicted armed robber, out of the house.
Mr Clemmons, 37, is the prime suspect in the case and witnesses to the murders yesterday morning in a coffee shop on the edge of the McChord Air Force Base south of Seattle say that the gunman was himself shot in the torso before making his escape.
The cold-blooded ambush shocked the country although investigators say they know of no reason why Mr Clemmons or anyone else would have opened fire on the four officers as they sat working on their laptops, catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Prime suspect: Maurice Clemmons, 37. Cop killer. Thug on the run.
Seattle PD cops slain in the line of duty: Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards, 42. RIP.
We have you surrounded! Come on out with your hands raised!
The perp is probably in Canada by now.
I’m not trying to make lite of the situation, but honestly, if he was wounded as they say, how long can someone last like that?
How much you want to bet they had the sirens on while they were driving to his house? Perhaps it would have been better if they had called him and made an appointment for them to come and get him?
If it was an act of jailbird jihad, we’ll never hear about it.
Depends on where you’re hit. If it didn’t hit any organs he could heal around the wound and (assuming it didn’t go straight through him) enclose the bullet inside.
Check every inch of the structure.
Check the hospitals.
Get the dogs.
Makes me think of Ashley Smith and her Atlanta hostage ordeal.
Nah, Canada would extradite him. He is probably fleeing to Arkansas where he has always experienced incompetence and coddling from the criminal justice system and governor.
This was obviously a racially-motivated crime, and I’m sure Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are at this moment in front of TV cameras deman.....
Oh, wait...
Of course, no racist hate crime here.
I realize the Police are dealing with a dangerous situation, but this is the 3rd or 4th time in recent weeks where police set up outside a suspect home and spent a night trying to talk someone out only to find the place empty.
None at all. We all know there is not a force anywhere in the universe, powerful enough to call this a hate crime.
The reporting has been pretty horrible on this. I don't think big cities have police reporters anymore. So it's misstatement, restatements, but not corrections or clarifications. His white Ford pickup truck was found at a supermarket. He was said to be escaping in a white pickup truck via carjacking. I think (this is me guessing) the whole carjacking thing was BS. He ran from the restaurant to his truck, and drove away. Was there someone else in the truck, maybe they drove by some pre-determined route and he jumped in the moving truck? Don't know. It seems that someone must have driven him from Tacoma to Seattle in another car. (Unless he also pre-positioned another car at the supermarket. That would make him a pretty smart guy as far as planning a get away.) The police say they have several accomplices in custody, but are giving no details. Eventually we'll get a real timeline with (mostly) correct details. I wouldn't be totally surprised if he's found back in Tacoma. Where else is he going to go?
i still want to know why they were doing paperwork in a coffee shop(at the beginning of a shift no less) instead of at the station...
The Forza shop on Steele Street is (or rather, was) considered a ‘safe haven’ for cops from several jurisdictions to sit and relax, get paperwork done, exchange info, and so on. I used to visit that coffee house myself. It wasn’t just Lakewood officers, but WSP and Pierce County sheriff deputies that go there.
They also serve a decent cup of coffee, so why not go there for an early-morning confab on a weekend. It could’ve been the Starbuck’s at Lakewood Mall. It could have been the McDonald’s nearby. It’s my guess (and only a guess) that the perp was looking for a place that had a bunch of cops in it. The Forza happened to be the place.
They would of course. But he'd never get the death penalty as a result.
but BEFORE starting their patrol??? just sounds odd...
If they catch up with this dirt bag, he is going to get shot 47 times while “Trying to escape.”
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