I absolutely have the urge to cry right now....

[HAVE_A_HEART]

4 cops were murdered this morning while they were having coffee in a coffee shop--in Parkland, Washington. People---all these cops were doing was drinking coffee!!!

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4 police officers killed in Wash. coffee shop
Sheriff's official says at least one gunman walked in and opened fire

breaking news
msnbc.com news services
updated 7 minutes ago
PARKLAND, Wash. - A gunman walked into a coffee shop and shot and killed four police officers Sunday morning in what sheriff's officials described as an "ambush."

The officers were sitting in the cafe at a strip mall near the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood with their laptop computers, preparing for their day shifts, when a gunman came in and opened fire, Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

"This was a targeted, selected ambush," Troyer said, adding that customers and baristas were in the Forza Coffee shop at the time but no one else was shot at or injured.


Authorities scoured the area for the gunman, who is believed to have fled on foot or by car. Nearby McChord Air Force Base was put on alert.

"We are in the process of searching multiple locations," Troyer said.

There was no specific advance threat against the officers, who all worked for law-enforcement agencies in the county, Troyer said.

He also said there was no known link between the Pierce County officer slayings and the Oct. 31 fatal shooting of a Seattle police officer who was ambushed as he sat in a parked patrol car on a Seattle street. Christopher John Monfort is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in that shooting.

A $10,000 reward was being offered for information leading to those responsible.

Brad Carpenter, the founder of Forza Coffee, told NBC News that all his employees were accounted for. A retired police officer himself, Carpenter started Forza in 2002 and now has 21 stores, primarily in the Tacoma area.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Former Governor Mike Hucklebury commuted his sentence. Hopefully that fact shall be remembered should he ever try to run for President again.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

He was arrested for raping a child, and he was out on the streets?? Even if this is not the man who killed these 4 officers--what is wrong with this picture?

[Slayer Dug]

IMHO you can blame it on the liberalisation of America.
It seems to me that anybody with a (violent) criminal past is coddled by the bleeding hearts within the system. All too often we hear about a criminal's
economic distress and/or they had a bad childhood, growing up in a dysfunctional family. It seems that these malcontents and ne'er do wells' rights are more valuable than the rights of the victims and their families, which is bullsh*t. If you have the presence of mind to commit a (violent) crime then you should do the time.

The loopholes in the system need to be closed. The rule of law needs to be applied with a firm hand. Activist judges and bleeding heart attorneys need to be kicked to the curb. Laws are made to be enforced and obeyed. Again, these "rights watch" groups need to stop whining about a perpetrator's
handling and treatment within the system. The perpetrator(s) were certainly NOT concerned with their victims' rights at the time these (violent) acts were committed so why should we consider any lenience for the perpetrators?

[Slayer Dug]

My thoughts and prayers are with the victim's families.
The perp needs to be hunted like an animal and when found, strung up and slowly gutted like a deer by the surviving family members.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Update: Police think the man they were looking for is dead.

Lakewood Police officers Greg Richards (top left), Mark Renninger (top right), Tina Griswold (bottom right) and Ronald Owens (bottom left) were shot and killed at a coffee shop in Parkland, Wash., on Sunday. There was 8 kids left behind between the 4 officers.

Cops: Suspect in officer killings may be dead
Seattle house surrounded after gunman slays 4 officers in coffee shop

NBC News and news services
updated 36 minutes ago
SEATTLE - A suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a suburban coffee shop was in a Seattle house early Monday, wounded and possibly dead, police said.

Negotiators were trying to communicate with Maurice Clemmons, 37, using loudspeakers and explosions to try to prod him from hiding. At one point, gunshots rang through the neighborhood, which is some 30 miles from the original crime scene.

"We have determined that in fact he has been shot," said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff. "He may be deceased from his gunshot wound."


NBC News reported Monday that police had not been able to make contact with Clemmons.

Authorities had speculated early Sunday that the gunman might have been wounded at the coffee shop by one of his victims. Troyer said interviews with others detained in the investigation confirmed that theory.

'We are not going away'
Police surrounded the house late Sunday, and a negotiator used a loudspeaker early Monday to call him out by name, saying: "Mr. Clemmons, I'd like to get you out of there safely. I can tell you this, we are not going away."

Any response from inside the house was inaudible from the vantage of a photographer for The Associated Press. But shortly thereafter, police began using sirens outside the house, and there were several loud bangs before the negotiator resumed speaking, saying: "This is one of the toughest decisions you'll make in your life, but you need to man up."

By 3 a.m. Pacific time, the loudspeakers and explosions had fallen silent.

Clemmons, 37, who had a lengthy prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago, became the prime target Sunday in the search for the killer of Lakewood Police Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; and Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards 42.


Maurice Clemmons was convinced that "world is going to end soon and he was Jesus," according to The Seattle Times.



Clemmons is believed to have been in the area around the time of the shooting, but Troyer declined to say what evidence might link him to the shooting.

On Sunday, Huckabee deflected blame with a statement on his Web site.

"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," he wrote.

Investigators say they know of no reason that Clemmons or anyone else might have had to open fire on the four as they sat working on their laptops early Sunday morning, catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts.

"We're going to be surprised if there is a motive worth mentioning," said Troyer, who sketched out a scene of controlled and deliberate carnage that spared the employees and other customers at the coffee shop in suburban Parkland, south of Seattle.

"He was very versed with the weapon," Troyer said. "This wasn't something where the windows were shot up and there bullets sprayed around the place. The bullets hit their targets."

Extensive criminal history
Officer Richards' sister-in-law, Melanie Burwell, called the shooting "senseless."

"He didn't have a mean bone in his body," she said. "If there were more people in the world like Greg, things like this wouldn't happen.


Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas. He also recently was arrested and charged in Washington state for assaulting a police officer, and second-degree rape of a child. Using a bail bondsman, he posted $150,000 — only $15,000 of his own money — and was released from jail last week.

Documents related to the pending charges in Washington state indicate an unstable and volatile personality. In one instance, he is accused of punching a sheriff's deputy in the face, The Seattle Times reported. In another, he is accused of gathering his wife and young relatives and forcing them to undress, according to a Pierce County sheriff's report.

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

Troyer said investigators believe two of the officers were killed while sitting in the shop, and a third was shot dead after standing up. The fourth apparently "gave up a good fight."

"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight ... that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said.

In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Huckabee commuted a 95-year prison sentence. Huckabee, who was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for granting many clemencies and commutations, cited Clemmons' youth. Clemmons later violated his parole, was returned to prison and released in 2004.

There was no indication of any connection between Sunday's killings and the Halloween night shooting of a Seattle police officer.

Authorities say theman charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a "one-man war" against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested after being wounded in a firefight with police days after the Seattle shooting.

The officers killed Sunday had received no threats, sheriff's officials said.

"We won't know if it's a copycat effect or what it was until we get the case solved," Troyer said.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

It is apparent that the suspect was not in the house that the police had surrounded this morning--and that he may actually still be alive. I for one hope this guy doesn't make it to Christmas! That would be a christmas gift for humanity if that happens.

[Slayer Dug]

According to the latest Yahoo! news update the suspect, Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed early Tues. morning. Merry Christmas.

[HAVE_A_HEART]

Yep!!!! They GOT him this morning!!!!

Police fatally shoot cop-slayings suspect
Ex-con wanted in attack is killed while reportedly standing in Seattle street


msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 10 minutes ago
SEATTLE - Police early Tuesday shot and killed a man suspected of gunning down four police officers, a sheriff's spokesman said, a day after the man eluded police who had spent hours trying to coax him out of a house.

Maurice Clemmons was shot to death in a working-class Seattle neighborhood after police tracked him down using possible hiding spots supplied by Pierce County investigators, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the county sheriff.

Police had surrounded a house in Seattle late Sunday following a tip Clemmons had been dropped off there. After an all-night siege, a special weapons and tactics police team entered the home Monday morning and found it empty. But police said Clemmons had been there.


Authorities said the gunman singled out the officers in the coffee shop and spared employees and other customers. 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.

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."


Authorities suspect Clemmons, 37, of killing the four Lakewood officers at a coffee shop Sunday morning in Parkland, a Tacoma suburb about 35 mile south of Seattle.

Police said they aren't sure what prompted Clemmons to shoot the officers as they did paperwork on their laptops at a coffee shop. 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.

Citing a police source, The Seattle Times reported Clemmons was standing outside in South Kenyon Street when he was confronted by officers. The source said Clemmons challenged the officers and was shot around 2:40 a.m. local time.

Handshakes
At the scene, a couple of dozen police officers milled around, shaking hands and patting each other on the back after one of the largest manhunts in the region's history.

Clemmons had stayed on the run for nearly two days with help from a network of friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said. Troyer told Fox News police arrested three people overnight on suspicion of rendering criminal assistance.

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.

Police believe people close to Clemmons have misled officers, and Troyer said anyone helping him could face charges. Clemmons' sister wasn't in custody late Monday, and her name wasn't released.


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.

On Monday, The Seattle Times reported that detectives believed Clemmons has access to several weapons, including rifles, shotguns and handguns.

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 the governor commuted his sentence.

[Slayer Dug]

I saw this same article on Yahoo! News in its entirety before they condensed it. One official slammed former Gov. Huckabee for stating that the system and its heads needed to be scrutinized for allowing criminals to walk the streets. The official said that Huckabee needed to "Man up and own what you did", in reference to Mr. Huckabee commuting Mr. Clemmons' sentence.

My message to Mr. Huckabee? "You suck! F*CK YOU! If it weren't for you, that murderous S.O.B. would still be in prison; four cops would be alive and four families would not be suffering right now during the holiday season. You are a part of the system and are part of the problem."

[HAVE_A_HEART]

The unfortunate thing here Dug, is Hucklebee is not the only Govenor who have commuted dangerous criminals. I am sure that I am safe in saying that every Governor and even President of The US--have got at least one 'that never should have been done' commutes on thier record.

The incident I really would love to know about is who is the judge that allowed for this man to get a bail bond AFTER this man was arrested for rapeing a child--and having the type of criminal record that he had in the past??? That is the person who seriously concerns me.