4 police officers shot dead at Wash. coffeehouse
November 29th, 2009 . by TexasFred4 police officers shot dead at Wash. coffeehouse
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A gunman burst into a Washington state coffeehouse Sunday and opened fire on four police officers as they sat working on their laptops, killing the three men and one woman in what an official described as a targeted ambush.
Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said officers were looking for one male suspect who fled on foot, but haven’t ruled out an accomplice.
Troyer said the four officers killed - all from the Lakewood Police Department - were catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts when they were attacked at 8:15 a.m. Sunday.
Troyer said the attack was clearly targeted at the officers, not a robbery gone bad.
“There were marked patrol cars outside and they were all in uniform,” Troyer said.
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4 police officers shot dead at Wash. coffeehouse
The 1st thing I have to say is, our most sincere condolences to the families and friends of these fallen Officers! We are with you in spirit I assure you.
Web sites are going crazy with speculation.
As I told some folks on Facebook regarding speculation, it is indeed TOO early, speculation is just that. It may be terrorism, it may be domestic terrorism, it may be gangs, it may be anarchists, it may simply some CRAZY that hates the police, and to speculate, at this time, is ridiculous!
There is one thing that must be said though, NEVER NEVER NEVER allow yourself to fall into a predictable pattern. Don’t eat dinner at the same place every day, don’t drink your morning coffee at the same coffee house every day. NEVER fall into a routine that is easily tracked!
I knew an officer, many years ago, that went to the same convenience store at the same time, every day, day in, day out, as regular as clock work, to get a cold drink. His pattern never got him into any trouble, but his friends all knew where to congregate to have those daily BS sessions. It was a more innocent time in America.
Even now, I know that many officers hit the local 7-11, Starbucks, whatever the case may be, and many of them do so habitually. They may not realize they have become habitual, but if some sick freak out there has a grudge against them, and is stalking them and developing a pattern, they are giving that person an edge and an opportunity to strike.
That’s a lesson I learned many years ago, from an old Marine Recon guy that told me, NEVER go out the way you went in, NEVER go in the way you plan to go out. Never let your habits get you killed. So far, so good.
As the facts of this story develop, I will be doing updates, here and on the Facebook Group, The Thin Blue Line.
Today, that Thin Blue Line grew a bit more thin…
Stories are coming in and news services are updating fast and furious. The fact remains, we need to allow the police departments involved the time they need to do their job and get to the bottom of this heinous attack. To speculate truly does NO GOOD to anyone involved.
“This was more of an execution. He walked in with the mind of shooting police officers,” Troyer said.
It wasn’t immediately known if any of the officers were able to return fire. They were declared dead at the scene.
Troyer said two employees and a few customers were in the Forza Coffee Company shop at the time but no one else was hurt. “As you can imagine they are all traumatized,” he said.
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4 police officers killed in Wash. coffee shop
As said earlier, offer condolences and supprt and let the police DO their jobs. Trust me, no one wants to see this killer tracked down and disposed of any more than they do!
My deepest, heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of these four officers. May God give them comfort during this sad time off loss. This sort of thing continues to boggle my mind… so senseless.
My prayers go out to the families of the fallen officiers. A good post Fred and like you I will not be quick to condemn any group, but when the truth comes out as it surely will in this case I will go at this story with guns blazing. Just too many unanswered questions at this time. I don’t think this guy will be taken alive.
For God’s sake I hope the shooters names didn’t have a “Muhammed” in it. THERE IS (supposably) a training camp according to the FBI between Portland and Seattle but that’s all I am saying till I find out more. I don’t want to be the one starting a wild ass accusation list. I will say one thing though, may God have mercy on their asses who did the shooting no matter who they are, because when you kill a LEO/(s) you find out what vengeance really is.
I hate to hear that any police officer is wounded or killed while on/off duty…but this incident should never have happened. If an officer needs to pull himself off the streets to catch up on paperwork….then he needs to be off the street at the station…or since they had laptops they could have been in their cars at different locations. There were many a times that I had to fill out reports, so I pulled my car over into a parking lot and wrote it out…often interrupted by another urgent call…which led me to finish a lot of reports at the station after my shift was over.
That was pure negligence on the part of the officers and their supervisors to allow that many officers off the streets and in the same location at the same time. I hope they find who is at fault and also the low life that commited this hateful act of violence.
My thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and fellow officers.
extex_cop, I am guessing a lazy Sunday morning *Let’s all get together and talk about it* kind of thing, and I am also only guessing, but I’d take serious bets that it was a regular thing too…
Some asshole may have pulled this off on a snap decision, a moment of spontaneity, but I am going out on a limb and say there was some serious planning put into it, and a study of patterns exhibited by the officers…
Otherwise, these officers were just terribly unlucky and very lax in their mutual protection of one another…
My gosh, what is this nation coming to?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these officers.
The families of those officers are in my prayers! How very, very SAD!! It’s quite obvious they were targeted. I’m very angry about this!! Trust they will get the scumbag(s) who did this!!!
I do agree with you Fred on being careful about predictable patterns of behavior. I severed as a reserve officer in a small town on the East Coast when I was stateside, while serving in the USN. Even back then the chief admonished all officers, including reserves about this. We were not allowed to meet for coffee, breakfast, or otherwise congregate together unless we were both off shift and Not In Uniform.
This is too sad!!! It will be very interesting to see what comes out after they get the miscreant(s) who did this.
KEEP YOU POWDER DRY!
My thoughts and prayers go out to my Law Enforcement brothers and sister and to their families as well. There’s not much I can say, because I am often guilty of the same mistake that these officers made. I do hope and pray that they catch and kill this murderer.
I really cannot add much. At least at this time. God bless the families,and yes, I include all the Police Officers, and EMT’s, as well as Firefighters. We are, after all is said and done, one big extended family in public safety and service.
I am so sad to hear this-this is the first time I have heard this report as today we spent on the road and i worked my way home. My heart is crushed. Prayers sent up for the family and friends and for our nation as this travesty has to touch every heart I know. God Bless the friends and family of these fallen officers. Please hold all of our service family in your comforting arms.
And now, details emerge:
PARKLAND, Wash. (AP) - One of four police officers killed in an ambush at a coffee house Sunday fought with the gunman and may have wounded him before the officer died just outside the doorway, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer told reporters that investigators were asking area medical providers to report any people wounded by gunshots.
Troyer said investigators believe two of the officers were shot dead while sitting in the shop, and a third was killed after standing up. The fourth apparently struggled with the gunman out the doorway and “gave up a good fight,” getting off a few shots before he was either shot there or succumbed to earlier wounds.
“We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight … that he fought the guy all the way out the door,” Troyer said.
He added, “We hope that he hit him.”
SOURCE
A travesty like this reminds me again and again that we are living in a different world than the one I grew up in. God Bless those officers and their families.
As with everyone here, condolences to the families of the involved officers. Nothing shatters like this, except perhaps at the worst of times like the holidays. There is a “person of interest” being mentioned but, to my knowledge, he has not been named as the clear single suspect, yet.
BZ
It seems that then Governor Mike Huckebee commuted the 35 year prison sentence of the person of interest in the shooting. After his release, he went on committing crimes, was sentenced to another 10 years but was paroled.
Huckabee commuted sentence of man tied to police slayings
A BLACK EX-CON did it, and that is all I have to say.
The Huckster just saw ANY poitical aspirations he may have had wink out…
I know the cops are anxious to get this guy, but damn… Let’s get it right and not make police look BAD in the process…
SEATTLE (AP) - Police say the suspect in the slayings of four police officers at a suburban coffee shop was not found in the Seattle home where he was thought to have been holed up.
Negotiators spent the night trying to communicate with 37-year-old Maurice Clemmons, using loudspeakers, explosions and even a robot to try to prod him from hiding. But when they entered the home, he was not there.
My Way News - Police: Suspect in deaths of officers not in house
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.”
The failure started with Huckabee. The criminal justice system did its job when he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. If he had allowed justice to take its course, this piece of garbage would still be sitting in prison and 4 police officers would still be alive and many other victims wouldn’t have had to suffer because of this scum.
The time has come where politicians and parole boards must be held accountable for the crimes committed by those they release from prison.
I would like to ask a question. IF they were doing the paperwork just prior to starting their shift, did they NOT have their vests on? If they did, just what type of a weapon was this piece of shit carrying anyway? AP rounds?
Lots of questions to be answered, too many at this time, that’s why I am asking everyone to NOT speculate, just let the cops do the job and pray for the families..
I too want to know WTF he was carrying and shooting and I really want to know how 1 guy took out 4 experienced cops all by himself… Strange shit going down right now…
My prayers go out to their families. I grew up at a time when police walked a beat, knew their neighborhood and only drew their weapon on the range. I want that time back. So what if a criminal got his face smashed in or was roughed up a bit. The streets were safe for a lady (not a lady of the evening type either) to walk down.
Oops! I’m not being very PC!
Hmmmm…an black ex-con. Could he be one of those blacks in prison that converted to the Islam faith??? No Muslim name mentioned…but then again they may not know he converted.
I have other comments…but that would just lead some to say I’m racist for picking on a poor innocent black man trying to make a living in this cruel white world….so I’ll wait a while for things to be investigated more.
His name is Maurice Clemmons. Most likely from the information already out is that Maurice saw the 4 cops sitting very close together in the coffee shop, at 1 table, looking into their laptop computers, chatting with each other and said to himself, “this is the time”, as they are not looking around at what is going on in the coffee shop.
Maurice’s pick-up was outside in the parking lot.
He either had his handgun on him, or he went back to his truck and got it.
Maurice was very close to him and was able to shoot 3 cops in their heads,,,,, the 4th cop was reacting as quick as he could, and returning fire with his duty weapon. This cop fought with Maurice all the way back to the front door, where he fell mortally wounded and died.
Maurice was either shot in the gut , or lower leg, thigh area, as he was able to get back into his parked pick-up, and drive away.
Maurice drove to where he could find help. He found help, obtained bandages, pain-killers, etc. from these aiding and abetting friends.
Maurice was NOT in the apartment the cops thought he would be in.
The cops have in custody the friends who helped Maurice.
I am sure they have been questioned, and are being held for further info.
Maurice may well have only non-deadly flesh wounds.
If so, he could well survive this, unless he is ratted on, and his whereabouts reported to the police.
Lots of perps have bullet holes in them, that went thru-an-thru.
And they live on and commit more crimes.
So, let’s all hope that this walking piece of trash is found quickly, arrested and kept alive, to face the punishment eh has coming.
A lot of people, in the thin blue line and also not in it, would like this perp to be found dead.
What these 4 cops did by holding “office” in a public place is done all the time. I have seen it myself.
It has always been a lack of awareness that gets many leo’s killed every year. We will hear a lot about this.
Let’s hope this negro ex-con killer of 4 policemen(noting one was female) gets caught or killed in his apprehension.
Just Damn!