Story Published: Nov 30, 2009 at 4:24 AM PST
Story Updated: Nov 30, 2009 at 3:46 PM PST
The scene of the fatal shooting of the four Lakewood police officers.
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Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Dave McDonald says the gun was found in the coffee shop, but investigators say they don't know if it's the weapon used in Sunday's shooting deaths of the Lakewood officers. McDonald would not say what type of weapon it is. McDonald says that despite finding the handgun, authorities still consider the suspected shooter, Maurice Clemmons, armed and dangerous.
The News Tribune of Tacoma initially reported the discovery of the weapon.
Meanwhile, police continued to scour the Puget Sound region in their desperate search for Clemmons.
Perhaps their best lead to date fizzled when a home they thought the 37-year-old Clemmons was holed up in turned up empty. SWAT teams had spent most of Sunday night and early Monday morning trying to communicate with him, using loudspeakers, explosions and even a robot sent into the house. But he was nowhere to be found.
The discovery added new urgency to the manhunt for Clemmons as police canvassed the neighborhood with search dogs and hundreds of officers were deployed around Seattle for any sign of the suspect, checking out several tips through the morning and early afternoon. Authorities put up a $125,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said the location of Clemmons was not known, and it's possible he still could be in the neighborhood. Troyer also said people who know Clemmons told investigators he had been shot in the torso in his bloody struggle with the officers.
"If he didn't get a ride out of there, he could still be in the area," Troyer said.
Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said there was evidence Clemmons at one point was on the property, but officers could not determine whether he was in the house itself. Kappel would not describe what the evidence was, but said it was a "good tip" that led them to the home.
 Maurice Clemmons |
Meanwhile, University of Washington officials alerted students by e-mail and text messages to an unconfirmed report that Clemmons might have gotten off a bus on or near the campus about 3 miles north of the residence, university police Cmdr. Jerome Solomon said. Police were checking the area, he said.
At one point, what sounded like gunshots rang through the neighborhood, but Kappel said no shots were fired.
Troyer said warrants for first-degree murder have been issued against Clemmons in the killings of the officers from the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood who were gunned down in a coffee shop on Sunday morning at the start of their shifts.
Clemmons has a long criminal history, including a long prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago, and a recent arrest for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Washington.
Authorities allege he killed Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Greg Richards, 42, as they worked on their laptop computers at the beginning of their shifts.
Clemmons is believed to have been in the area of the coffee shop around the time of the shooting, but Troyer declined to say what evidence might link him to the shooting.
'This Guy Should Have Never Been On The Street'
Lakewood police say the world has opened their hearts to help support the families of the four officers.
Brian Wurts, president of the Lakewood Police Independent Guild, says donations have come in from all over since they've started collecting funds for the victims' families on their Web site www.lpig.us
"We're getting donations of $5, $10, $500 from around the world -- somebody from Switzerland just donated money," he said.
Nine children lost their fathers and mother in the slayings.
"We want to make sure these families are taken care of," Wurts said. "Not just for the next three, four, five days, but years to come when these 3- and 4-year-olds turn 18 and go off to college. "
As for Clemmons, Wurts had some strong words for those responsible for letting him back on the street.
"I think this community needs to get together and figure out why these people are out," he said. "You have 5 percent of the people committing 90 percent of the crimes...we've got to hold these people accountable, we have to keep them locked up, and if they want to rehabilitate them, you can rehabilitate them, but you rehabilitate them in prison, where they are supposed to be. This guy should have never been on the street."
 Photo of place where Lakewood shooting suspect Maurice Clemmons is believed to be holed up. (Photo Courtesy: Thom Weinstein, SeattlePI.com) |
No known motive
Investigators say they know of no reason for gunning down the officers, but court documents indicate Clemmons is delusional and mentally unstable.
"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, about 35 miles 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."
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 was also recently charged in Washington state with 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 a 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.
Neighbor paints brighter picture of shooting suspect
But Jeff Horning, who lives across the street from the Clemmons family and has known them for four years, says the family has always been helpful.
"(Very) close family, they have been there when we needed them if we needed anything," Horning said, adding they've spent many holidays together. "He loaned a couple of his employees to help my kids build their above-ground pool... everything neighborly you could put down in a book -- it would be him and the family."
He said he's worried that people have already convicted Clemmons and won't let due process take its course. But either way, he still supports the family.
"Whether it's right or not, whether he's guilty or not - it won't stop me from loving the family; won't stop me from praying for him and caring about him," Horning said. "(Clemmons) is really going to need some serious counseling, his family has gone through a lot, and I don't think anyone's realized the damage it's caused to his kids and the wife, and there's no sensitivity to that because we lost some beautiful police officers that should not have happened."
One officer 'gave up a good fight'
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.
On Sunday, Huckabee issued this 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."
It was the second deadly ambush of police in the Seattle area in recent weeks, but the two cases aren't related.
Authorities say a man killed a Seattle police officer on Halloween night and 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, Troyer said.
"We won't know if it's a copycat effect or what it was until we get the case solved," he said.
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