SEATTLE — Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in slaying of
four Lakewood, Wash., police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle
early Tuesday morning.
Clemmons was standing outside in the 4400 block of South
Kenyon Street when he was confronted by officers. He challenged the officers
and was shot around 2:40 a.m. (PST).
Clemmons has been the focus of a manhunt since Sunday
morning when he is accused of killing four Lakewood police officers in a coffee
shop.
No police were injured in the incident.
Police have said Clemmons received help since the
Sunday-morning shooting from friends and family who gave him places to stay,
medical aid, rides and money, police said. Officers detained a sister of
Clemmons who they think treated the 37-year-old suspect’s gunshot wound.
Police believe people close to Clemmons have misled
officers, and Pierce County Sheriff Office spokesman Ed 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 in
Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. 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.
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.
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 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.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
