Filed by KOSU News in US News.
December 1, 2009

The man authorities say gunned down four police officers over the weekend was shot and killed Tuesday in Seattle by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car.

Maurice Clemmons had been the target of a massive manhunt after he allegedly carried out the execution-style murders in a coffee shop Sunday. On Monday, authorities thought they had cornered him in a Seattle house but found it empty when they stormed the residence.

Police say Clemmons, 37, was carrying a handgun he took from one of the dead officers. A policeman recognized him near a stolen car in a south Seattle neighborhood at about 2:45 a.m. and ordered him to show his hands and stop, Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said.

“He wouldn’t stop,” Pugel said. “The officer fired several rounds.”

Clemmons, who had already been wounded by one of the four victims in Sunday’s attack, was shot and killed.

Four people were arrested for allegedly helping Clemmons elude authorities during the two-day manhunt, and police anticipated more arrests.

“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.”

On Monday, officers detained a sister of Clemmons who allegedly “drove him up to Seattle and bandaged him up” after Sunday’s attack, Troyer said.

Authorities say Clemmons singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop. He then fled after one of the dying officers shot him in the torso.

Troyer said he was “surprised that [Clemmons] managed to get away.”

“The officer did a good job in Lakewood,” Troyer said.

Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42, were killed in Sunday’s attack.

After Clemmons was killed, a couple of dozen police officers milled around at the scene, 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 why Clemmons shot the four officers, who were in uniform and were 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 added that Clemmons talked the night before the shooting about killing a group of cops and watching the news.

“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,” Troyer said.

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.

Clemmons also had a long criminal record. As a youth, he received a 108-year prison sentence in Arkansas but had his sentence commuted by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.

At the time, Huckabee cited Clemmons’ youth in shortening the sentence. But the former presidential candidate said on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor on Monday night that Clemmons was set free because prosecutors had failed to file paperwork in time.

From NPR staff and wire reports Copyright 2009 National Public Radio