2 months ago
SEATTLE, WA - More arrests are expected in Seattle, where a man suspected of gunning down four police officers was shot to death by police early Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff said six or seven people could be in custody by the end of Tuesday for allegedly helping Maurice Clemmons, 37, while he was on the run from police.
Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said some are friends and relatives, others "partners in crime."
Police said Clemmons was fatally shot early Tuesday by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car. He was wanted in the Sunday morning shooting deaths of four uniformed officers at coffee shop in the Tacoma suburb of Parkland.
Police said Clemmons was carrying a handgun taken from one of the dead officers.
Four people have already been arrested. Monday, officers detained a sister of Clemmons who is suspected of treating a gunshot wound on the suspect inflicted by one of the fatally wounded officers.
Police theorized that Clemmons targeted the coffee shop because it was frequented by police.
Clemmons had been the focus of an intense two-day manhunt that included a systematic raid of the homes of his friends and family, who were believed to have been helping him evade capture.
Police said Monday that Clemmons was believed to have been armed while on the run, possibly with several guns. Calling him "dangerous," they said, was an understatement. Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer told ABC News Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV that the raids Monday were being carried out "to collect evidence against him and against those helping him evade us."
Late Sunday night police tracked Clemmons, 37, to a house in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood, but an 11-hour standoff ended Monday morning when a police robot and SWAT members confirmed that Clemmons had been able to flee the area unnoticed.
Authorities say Clemmons had no ties to the house he was believed to have been hiding in and that they believe he was dropped off in the neighborhood Sunday evening. The area was described as hilly and wooded, providing lots of hiding places. A reward for information leading to an arrest had been bumped up Monday from $100,000 to $125,000.
A police source has told ABC News that a murder weapon was recovered Monday. Though more than one gun was recovered, they believe he used only one, a semi-automatic handgun, in the attack.
Authorities said the attack Sunday morning on the Lakewood officers was a planned ambush.
"We don't believe he was targeting them in particular," Troyer said. "We just believe he was out to kill some police officers execution style."
Police learned after the attack, Troyer added, that Clemmons had bragged to others the night before the shooting that they should watch the news "because he was going to go kill some cops."
Troyer said people who heard Clemmons' alleged warning called in the tip to police after the shooting.
"They are people they were hanging out with the night before," he said. "They didn't believe him and thought he was crazy."
Troyer said police have interviewed the people who heard the threat, but would not release their names or comment on their identities other than to say they were acquaintances of Clemmons.
The Lakewood Police Department is a small force and the deaths represent a loss of 10 percent to 15 percent of the department.
The four officers killed were parents to a total of nine children. Their deaths, Troyer said, should never have happened. In a news release, the sheriff's office said Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history in Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft.
Clemmons also recently was arrested and charged in Pierce County Washington for third-degree assault on a police officer and second-degree rape of a child. Clemmons had been released from custody six days ago, bonding out despite an outstanding warrant from Arkansas, where he was pardoned by then Gov. Mike Huckabee nine years ago after serving 11 years of a potential 60-year sentence.
Troyer faulted the state of Arkansas for not acting on the outstanding fugitive warrant for Clemmons after Washington police notified them that he was in custody.
"We know here in Washington we didn't do anything wrong," Troyer said. "We've arrested him multiple times."
In a statement released overnight, Huckabee called the murder of a police officer "the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within."
"Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State," Huckabee said, saying that Clemmons met the conditions for commutation and parole at the time.
"It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state."
Marion Humphrey, the Little Rock judge who urged clemency for Clemmons in 2000, told ABC News Tuesday that he was horrified and hurt that the man he recommended for leniency would be accused of such a crime.
"I did what I did, and I stand behind what I did. I regret what has happened and I acknowledge responsibility for what I did," Humphrey said. "At the time he appeared to me to be a person who was trying to get his life back together."
Humphrey, also a Presbyterian minister who presided over Clemmons' wedding, said his consideration was based on his belief in mercy and Clemmons' age at the time. After the attack, Troyer said, an electronic monitoring device put on Clemmons by the bond company was found to have been cut off his ankle.
Officers were Working on Their Computers When They were Shot
Police said the suspect in the shootings walked up to the counter as if to place an order, then pulled a gun out of his coat and began firing. In a last ditch effort to stop the attack, one of the officers was said to have struggled with the shooter, fighting him out the door of the coffee shop, and possibly getting off a few shots at the gunman, until the officer was shot and killed.
Troyer said over the weekend that the officers were working on their laptops, preparing for the start of their shifts when the shooting started.
"There were marked patrol cars outside and they were all in uniform," Troyer said. The officers were identified as:
-Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39.
He had 13 years of law enforcement experience, and is survived by a wife and 3 children.
-Officer Ronald Owen, 37.
He had 12 years of law enforcement experience, and is survived by his former wife and a daughter.
-Officer Tina Griswold, 40.
She had 14 years of law enforcement experience, and is survived by her husband and two children.
-Officer Greg Richards, 42.
He had eight years of law enforcement experience, and is survived by his wife and three children.
By NEAL KARLINSKY and SARAH NETTER
ABC News' Megan Clark and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
KXTV/News10
