Four Police Shot Dead In Washington

[Crazy_Vasey]

BBC

US police 'shot dead in ambush' in Washington state
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Four police officers have been shot dead near the McChord Air Force Base in Washington State, US media and police say.

A sheriff's department spokesman told KOMO-TV that the officers were shot at the east side of the air force base.

The officers were fired on while they were at a coffee shop, police say.

A sheriff spokesman described the shooting as an ambush. The air force base is in Parkland, Pierce County, 40 miles south of Seattle.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told local media that the officers had been in the coffee shop with their computers when the shooting happened on Sunday morning.

He said it is believed that the officers had been targeted and the incident was not a robbery.

Officials at the scene said two suspects had opened fire, KOMO-TV reported.

Other customers were in the coffee shop at the time but no-one else was injured, the report said.

The area has been sealed off by police.

Not a lot to say at this point really. Grim stuff.

[Kamakazie Sith]

This is also the second ambush on Seattle police officers within the month of November.

Nov 2nd, 2009

[Mayabird]

But that guy was caught (and connected to other attacks against the police before), which makes this more worrisome. Before this it was just a lone nut.

Also, these aren't actually Seattle police officers. This was south of Tacoma.

[FSTargetDrone]

Despite this awful incident, how common are attacks like this against police? I remember the nut in Pittsburgh who killed 3 officers who were responding to a domestic incident call, but this is quite different. I wonder if and for how long the shooter had been staking out these police. It sure seems like that must be the case where the shooter was ready for them (perhaps they were regular customers) if it's truly an "ambush."

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I was raised by these fuckers as a teenager--my parents were briefly mixed up with them--I remember going every week going out to this pastor's house where he kept a full arsenal, learning to clean guns, we'd go on manoeuvres in the woods for two weeks at a time. Anyway, he had a brother in law who filled my head full of conspiracy shit about black helicopters from the government, UN control plans, white separatism, etc. They had a fairly strong presence in the local civil war reenactors, too. The general understanding back then was that Washington State had 2,000 - 3,000 people in it ready to fight in an insurgency against the US Government.

This will only spread, and spread fast. If you remember, this is the SECOND attack on police officers within the span of a month -- and that one was against the Seattle PD, this is against the Pierce County Sheriff's department down by McChord south of Tacoma, so they've got range and definitely multiple cells, as they already shot and captured the guy responsible for the last of the attacks, who they also thought was responsible for the bombing we've had so far, a firebombing of three police cruisers and a mobile precinct command vehicle which happened shortly before that.

This is the third sustained attack upon law enforcement by these insurgents in the span of a month, and we can only expect the intensity to rapidly increase; if these guys are acting then they've found someone charismatic enough to motivate them, and they feel they have the numbers behind them to do some real damage and encourage others to rise up with them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This is surprising, confusing, even, but in this article on the BBC the suspect is described as a black man. I'll be the first to admit I just automatically accepted the prospect of an insurgency in Washington State, considering my background, but this is deeply interesting. I did some digging and Simon Montfort (the first attacker in the earlier attacks) was also black, which wasn't really publicized at the time. That adds a new dimension and one I can't precisely answer--there was a time when black nationalist insurgencies were a real prospect, but it was more than 30 years ago, and there's now a black man as president. Yet this remains organized paramilitary attacks on police officers, with the unknown question being a "why the hell?!" I expected this stuff from certain anarchist groups in the wake of the WTO, but that was a decade ago, and the memory's mostly faded.

[Broomstick]

Marina, why would you think that black insurgents/militants are any less able to hide, or any less wacko-insane, or any fewer in number than the white variety? Consider that you, being white, are extremely unlikely to be privy to what's going on with the black variety as you are the very face they are hiding from.

To such as that President Obama is not black enough - he's not authentic African-American as he is not a descendant of slaves nor did his ancestors suffer the Middle Passage. He's their color, but he's not one of them.

[Sea Skimmer]

Washington State is 88% white and 4% black, so you’d kind of inherently expect the blacks crazy types to be much much less common. The Asian population alone outnumbers them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yes, Skimmer is exactly right. There are twice as many Hispanics as there are blacks and twice as many Asians as there are blacks in Washington State; there are twenty-five white people for every black person in the state. Shit, our population of Native Americans is almost the same size as our black population. Washington State is filled with white separatist crazies for a reason--the state is, as Sea Skimmer noted, 88% white, and though it may be the most progressive state in the Union outside of New England, that also means that conservatives feel hopeless and marginalized and tend to be far more radical than they are elsewhere.

Violent black nationalist death squads hunting police in Washington State is about as absurd as Indians sniping people from the rooftops of downtown Chicago. And yet it's happening.

[Big Phil]

Where the fuck are you getting that these are "violent black nationalist death squads hunting police?" Simon Montfort was a pissed off dude acting alone. There's no evidence that the guy(s) who killed the cops in Lakewood weren't acting alone. Before you leap to yet another (incorrect) conclusion perhaps you should wait and see what gets reported.

And what the fuck is up with "Washington State is filled with white separatist crazies?" Yeah, there are some, but there are far more and in greater numbers in near any state in the South (or California, or Idaho, or the Midwest) than in Washington State.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Where the fuck are you getting that these are "violent black nationalist death squads hunting police?" Simon Montfort was a pissed off dude acting alone. There's no evidence that the guy(s) who killed the cops in Lakewood weren't acting alone. Before you leap to yet another (incorrect) conclusion perhaps you should wait and see what gets reported.

This attack was completely identical to Montfort's and the police haven't exactly been getting anything out of him. You do realize that these two incidents have increased the number of police murdered in the line of duty in the entire United States by 10%?

And what the fuck is up with "Washington State is filled with white separatist crazies?" Yeah, there are some, but there are far more and in greater numbers in near any state in the South (or California, or Idaho, or the Midwest) than in Washington State.

I was raised by them, okay? It's common knowledge that the Aryan Nations planned to turn the Pacific Northwest into a White Nationalist homeland, and lots of people moved here with the intent of effecting that change.

The state is deeply progressive but that tends to also add to a radicalization of the far right.

Anyway, since my experiences growing up are totally irrelevant, I guess, I'll just shut the fuck up.

[Big Phil]

Where the fuck are you getting that these are "violent black nationalist death squads hunting police?" Simon Montfort was a pissed off dude acting alone. There's no evidence that the guy(s) who killed the cops in Lakewood weren't acting alone. Before you leap to yet another (incorrect) conclusion perhaps you should wait and see what gets reported.

This attack was completely identical to Montfort's and the police haven't exactly been getting anything out of him. You do realize that these two incidents have increased the number of police murdered in the line of duty in the entire United States by 10%?

Which in no way proves your assertion of "violent black nationalist death squads hunting police."

And what the fuck is up with "Washington State is filled with white separatist crazies?" Yeah, there are some, but there are far more and in greater numbers in near any state in the South (or California, or Idaho, or the Midwest) than in Washington State.

I was raised by them, okay? It's common knowledge that the Aryan Nations planned to turn the Pacific Northwest into a White Nationalist homeland, and lots of people moved here with the intent of effecting that change.

The state is deeply progressive but that tends to also add to a radicalization of the far right.

Anyway, since my experiences growing up are totally irrelevant, I guess, I'll just shut the fuck up.

If all you have is personal anecdotes instead of data and evidence, then you probably should. If you had said, with evidence, that "there are 100,000 white separatist crazies in Washington," then we might still be arguing about whether or not it's "filled with white separatist crazies," but at least we'd be arguing from a real number. "Lots" isn't quantifiable, and in no way justifies what you said.

[loomer]

They have a suspect now. Looks like he's just a psychopath.
Link

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.

"This is the day I've been dreading for a long time," Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.

Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.

Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

He was released from custody just six days ago, even though he was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and was staring at eight felony charges in all out of Washington state.

Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons' release on the pending child-rape charge.

Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he has run a landscaping and power-washing business out of his house, according to a police interview with his wife earlier this year.

He was married, but the relationship was tumultuous, with accounts of his unpredictable behavior leading to at least two confrontations with police earlier this year.

During the confrontation in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff's deputy in the face, according to court records. As part of that incident, he was charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.

In another instance, Clemmons was accused of gathering his wife and young relatives around at 3 or 4 in the morning and having them all undress. He told them that families need to "be naked for at least 5 minutes on Sunday," a Pierce County sheriff's report says.

"The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus," the report says.


As part of the child-rape investigation, the sheriff's office interviewed Clemmons' sister in May. She told them that "Maurice is not in his right mind and did not know how he could react when contacted by Law Enforcement," a sheriff's report says.

"She stated that he was saying that the secret service was coming to get him because he had written a letter to the President. She stated his behavior has become unpredictable and erratic. She suspects he is having a mental breakdown," the report says.

Deputies also interviewed other family members. They reported that Clemmons had been saying he could fly and that he expected President Obama to visit to "confirm that he is Messiah in the flesh."

Prosecutors in Pierce County were sufficiently concerned about Clemmons' mental health that they asked to have him evaluated at Western State Hospital. Earlier this month, on Nov. 6, a psychologist concluded that Clemmons was competent to stand trial on the child-rape and other felony charges, according to court records.

Clemmons moved Washington in 2004, after being released from prison in Arkansas, state Department of Corrections records indicate. That would mean he had gone five years or so before landing in serious trouble with authorities here, according to a review of his criminal record.

Clemmons started Sea-Wash Pressure Washing Landscaping with his wife, Nicole Smith, in October 2005. The license for the business expired last month.

Long history of trouble in Arkansas

News accounts out of Arkansas offer a confusing — and, at times, conflicting — description of Clemmons' criminal history and prison time.

In 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property, according to a news account. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.

During one trial, Clemmons was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer. The presiding judge ordered the extra security because he felt Clemmons had threatened him, court records show.

Another time, Clemmons hid a hinge in his sock, and was accused of intending to use it as a weapon. Yet another time, Clemmons took a lock from a holding cell, and threw it toward the bailiff. He missed and instead hit Clemmons' mother, who had come to bring him street clothes, according to records and published reports.

On another occasion, Clemmons had reached for a guard's pistol during transport to the courtroom.

When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.

Clemmons served 11 years before being released.

News accounts say Huckabee then commuted Clemmons' sentence, citing Clemmons' young age at the time the crimes were committed.

But Clemmons remained on parole — and soon after landed in trouble again. In March 2001, he was accused of violating his parole by committing aggravated robbery and theft, according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazzette.

He was returned to prison on a parole violation. But in what appears to have been a mistake, Clemmons was not actually served with the arrest warrants until leaving prison three years later. As a result, Clemmons' attorney argued that the charges should be dismissed because too much time had passed. Prosecutors dropped the charges.

It appears that Clemmons remained in trouble with Arkansas authorities even after moving away. This year, while Clemmons was living in Washington, a warrant was issued for his arrest, accusing him of being a fugitive from Arkansas.

[Big Phil]

It's a little ironic that the killing of four police officers can be traced to Mike Huckabee

[FSTargetDrone]

It's a little ironic that the killing of four police officers can be traced to Mike Huckabee

Hm, I wonder if he will have any comment on the matter.

[Sea Skimmer]

No reason for him to do so when the guy is named as a person of interest. Maybe after he’s been charged or convicted Huckabee might say something, but probably not since by then everyone on the national stage will have mostly forgotten the link anyway.

[Simon_Jester]

If all you have is personal anecdotes instead of data and evidence, then you probably should. If you had said, with evidence, that "there are 100,000 white separatist crazies in Washington," then we might still be arguing about whether or not it's "filled with white separatist crazies," but at least we'd be arguing from a real number. "Lots" isn't quantifiable, and in no way justifies what you said.

She did give a number (2000-3000), and an associated time that would be... ten to fifteen years ago, if I remember rightly. However, she did not cite anything other than memory for that number.

I'd be inclined to say that "filled with" is an allowable rhetorical excess. I would be curious to see a citation if Duchess Zeon knows of any, though; it might make interesting reading.

[The Romulan Republic]

This is surprising, confusing, even, but in this article on the BBC the suspect is described as a black man. I'll be the first to admit I just automatically accepted the prospect of an insurgency in Washington State, considering my background, but this is deeply interesting. I did some digging and Simon Montfort (the first attacker in the earlier attacks) was also black, which wasn't really publicized at the time. That adds a new dimension and one I can't precisely answer--there was a time when black nationalist insurgencies were a real prospect, but it was more than 30 years ago, and there's now a black man as president. Yet this remains organized paramilitary attacks on police officers, with the unknown question being a "why the hell?!" I expected this stuff from certain anarchist groups in the wake of the WTO, but that was a decade ago, and the memory's mostly faded.

Once again, you made an assumption, as others have already been quick to point out. Assuming that it cannot be an example of Right-wing militia terrorism and that it has to be black nationalism simply because the offender is black is quite as absurd as assuming that it had to be Right-wing militias in the first place. I would also suggest that it is racist.

On another note, any chance this was a copycat killing by an unrelated nut?

[loomer]

No, it looks like it was a lunatic who thought he was the son of god, not a copycat attack in particular.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Look, the Northwest Imperative has been around for years, okay?

And again here, this from the blog of a guy who was here doing direct action against these types back in the days when I was being raised by them. Also, the numbers themselves were quotes by people in those organizations, at that time in the mid-1990s. I cannot confirm that they were not exagerrated by said individuals, but I am honestly reporting what I was told as a young teenager, and what influenced me to react the way I did when I heard this news.

[Serafine666]

They have a suspect now. Looks like he's just a psychopath.
-snip-

What the hell was someone with a rap sheet like this doing out on a $150,000 bond? It's just as legitimate to ask why the hell Huckabee let someone with a 95-year prison sentence walk free just because "he was just young and stupid" (which is a paraphrase of Huckabee's response to the question during the primaries) but the judge letting an accused child rapist with a long-as-hell rap sheet go as long as he ponied up $150,000 is much closer to the event in question.
Whether for good or ill, this sort of tragedy (assuming that it turns out that this guy was actually guilty) is why citizens do stuff like passing Measure 11 (mandatory sentencing) in Oregon: it may happen once in a blue moon but people seem to be more scared of a bad person accidentally getting out to roam unsupervised than they are that an innocent or relatively harmless person might be locked away.

[Sea Skimmer]

150,000 dollar bond was probably 10% of 1.5 million dollar bail, and that’s just how the US bail system works in most states. The Eight Amendment does ban excessive bail after all, and the average person could never even come close to posting 1.5 million dollars in cash even if they sold a large house. He probably shouldn’t have gotten bail, but US courts are generally reluctant to hold people for lengthy periods before trial. Once bail was decided upon the amount is in line with the upper end of what anyone ever gets.

[Serafine666]

150,000 dollar bond was probably 10% of 1.5 million dollar bail, and that’s just how the US bail system works in most states. The Eight Amendment does ban excessive bail after all, and the average person could never even come close to posting 1.5 million dollars in cash even if they sold a large house. He probably shouldn’t have gotten bail, but US courts are generally reluctant to hold people for lengthy periods before trial. Once bail was decided upon the amount is in line with the upper end of what anyone ever gets.

Well, my complaint wasn't with the amount of bail but that he was offered bail despite being accused of a very serious crime and having a list of serious crimes on his rap sheet, including one serious enough to have earned him a 95-year sentence. As to holding people for lengthy periods... well, that's what habeas corpus is for: if you're being held too long, you send a letter to a judge who issues the writ and your holding period ends one way or the other.

[FSTargetDrone]

Clemmons is dead:

Seattle police kill suspect in officer slayings

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson, Associated Press Writer

4 mins ago

SEATTLE – The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car early Tuesday. Four people were arrested for allegedly helping the suspect elude authorities during a massive two-day manhunt.

Maurice Clemmons was carrying a handgun he took from one of the dead officers when a Seattle policeman recognized him near a stolen car in a working-class south Seattle neighborhood about 2:45 a.m., Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said.

The vehicle was running but unoccupied when the officer pulled up, radioed in the license plate number and realized the car was stolen, Pugel said.

The officer saw something moving, got out of his car, saw Clemmons and ordered him to show his hands and stop.

"He wouldn't stop," Pugel said. "The officer fired several rounds."

Clemmons also had sustained a serious gunshot wound from one of the four officers killed in the coffee-shop shooting.

Police planned to arrest more people who helped Clemmons.

"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."

Three people were booked into the Pierce County Jail on Monday and early Tuesday for investigation of rendering criminal assistance on four counts of first-degree murder. They are Ricky Hinton, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis. Troyer said a getaway driver also was arrested. That person's identity wasn't immediately known.

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.

Authorities say Clemmons, 37, singled out the Lakewood officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before one of the dying officers apparently shot him in the torso.

"I'm surprised that he managed to get away," Troyer said. "The officer did a good job in Lakewood."

Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42.

A couple dozen police officers milled around at the scene where Clemmons apparently was shot, 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 what prompted Clemmons to shoot the four officers, who were in uniform and 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 said Clemmons talked the night before the shooting about killing a group of cops and watching the news.

Police believe Clemmons chose the coffee shop because it was frequented by police officers from various agencies.

"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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Serafine666]

Clemmons is dead

This is a real shame... it would have been nice to haul this guy into a courtroom, convict him, and let him run out his 40 years of appeals before the state put a needle in his arm. But it's hard to feel too disappointed; at least posthumous evidence closes the book on his guilt (based upon the article).