Seattle Police Department on trail of Maurice Clemmons; Update: Family reportedly aiding Clemmons; Update: Seattle PD officer fatally shoots Clemmons; Update: Suspected getaway driver is former Ark. cellmate
Scroll for updates…police cancel search for Clemmons’ wife’s Mazda…sold 2 months ago, according to KIRO TV…Outrageous: Family reportedly assisting fugitive Clemmons…12/1 8am Eastern…Clemmons is dead, shot in South Seattle by SPD…more on the accomplices and enablers below…
I’ve been monitoring the SPD police scanner throughout the day. There have been many dead ends. Chatter and action is picking up after a call this afternoon from a citizen who reportedly discovered bloody gauze and an abandoned vehicle. Officers are headed to the scene. Scanner chatter reports that someone also spotted a black male on foot and bleeding.
More as it comes in.
Tacoma News Tribune’s crime blog is monitoring.
Seattle Times reports that police are also seeking Clemmons’ wife and car. They believe she may be headed to…Arkansas:
Police are looking for the wife of suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons, and have told officers to be on the lookout for her car, possibly headed to Arkansas.
Notice went out about 12:15 p.m. for officers to be on the lookout for a green 1997 Mazda Millenia with Washington license plate 208-SSX, registered to Clemmons’ wife, Nicole Cheryleen Smith.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused police to focus on Smith and her car. Someone who answered the door at her Tacoma home this morning declined to speak to a Times reporter.
Police had spent the morning chasing reports about Clemmons after the house they had surrounded overnight turned up empty.
Why are people such morons in times of crisis?! Hoaxsters interfere with police hunt:
When the 911 calls started coming in, officers from Lakewood, Tacoma and other jurisdictions raced to the area.
“I have never seen this many scramble to a particular spot, ever,” said David Gabrielson, 27, who works as clerk at a gas station near the coffee shop.
An apparent hoax came when a man called 911, claiming to be the shooter. Police took the man into custody at a Parkland house, but he was not linked to the crime, Troyer said.
A second likely hoax came after a Tacoma man called his girlfriend and some other people and falsely claimed responsibility for the shooting, Troyer said. The man has since been arrested on suspicion of obstructing a police investigation.
That hoax sparked the search of vehicles parked outside Evergreen Self Storage, a facility near the shooting scene. The Pierce County bomb squad was dispatched to the storage facility.
Authorities remained on edge all day. At one point, Troyer, who was carrying an assault rifle, told members of the media, “this is kind of a hot area, so you’re kind of on your own.”
Heavily armed police on Sunday surrounded the Tacoma home of Clemmons’ wife, not far from the shooting scene. It didn’t appear anyone was home. Later Sunday night they served a search warrant at the home.
Troyer said police found a GPS ankle bracelet during a search of a house where Clemmons was believed to have been staying. Clemmons was required to wear an ankle bracelet under terms of his recent release.
Troyer said if the gunman was shot, he could be traveling some distance to get care. Troyer suggested the man may try to visit a medical facility and claim he had suffered an accidental gunshot wound.
***
Update 4:31pm Eastern. Via scanner chatter, it appears that a possible lead on Clemmons’ wife’s car has turned up empty. Police still waiting for a dog. Blood is still liquid, says an officer over the scanner.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an interview with one of Clemmons’ Arkansas victims who minces no words about the “little bastard” who should “still be in prison.”
Update 9:31pm Eastern. Seattle PD says Clemmons’ family and friends are aiding him on the run. A monster and his many enablers:
Police have surrounded a house in the Renton area tonight as they continue the hunt for suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons.
A relative of Clemmons lives at the house and was taken into custody, but authorities are still looking for Clemmons, according a law enforcement source.
The relative is believed to have helped Clemmons elude capture, the source said.
Clemmons has been getting help and shelter from friends and relatives since shortly after the Sunday morning shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers, authorities have concluded.
“Basically, there’s no way that he could be doing this by himself; he was shot in the abdomen,” said Sheri Badger, Pierce County spokeswoman at the incident command center.Also frustrating to law-enforcement officers is that Clemmons reportedly told acquaintances the night before the attack to “watch the news” because he was going to “kill cops.”"
No one reported his comments to police until after the attack, Badger said.
***
12/1 8am Eastern. Clemmons is dead. SPD found him in South Seattle early this morning and fatally shot him:
Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in slaying of four Lakewood police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle early this morning.
Clemmons was standing outside in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street when he was confronted by officers. He challenged the officers and was shot around 2:40 a.m.
No police were injured in the incident.
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 has been the focus of a manhunt since Sunday morning when he is accused of killing four Lakewood police officers in a coffee shop in Parkland.
Police have said Clemmons received help since the Sunday morning shooting from friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said. Officers detained a sister of Clemmons who they think treated the 37-year-old suspect’s gunshot wound.
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.
More details:
Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in slaying of four Lakewood police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle early this morning.
Clemmons, who reportedly was armed with a handgun taken from one of officers he is accused of killing, was standing outside in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street when he was confronted by a South Precinct patrol officer. He refused commands to stop was shot by the officer about 2:45 a.m.
According to Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel, the officer was on patrol came when he upon a car that had been reported stolen and the car was running.
The officer was in his patrol car processing a stolen vehicle reporter when he noticed a man was approaching the patrol car and recognized him as possibly being Clemmons, Pugel said…
…Troyer said this morning that several people who had been helping Clemmons have been arrested. Among them is a man described as a getaway driver who drove Clemmons from the scene where the four officers were killed.
The Tacoma News Tribune has obtained psych evaluations on Clemmons from last spring:
“I’ll kill all you bitches,” Maurice Clemmons told the Pierce County Jail workers who were trying to book him, according to court records.
It was May 9, 2009. Clemmons, 37, had been arrested after punching a sheriff’s deputy in the face. He was charged with multiple counts of third-degree assault and malicious mischief and later, second-degree child rape.
Clemmons, the prime suspect in the Sunday slayings of four Lakewood police officers, received a court-ordered mental health evaluation tied to the charges filed in May. The evaluation, obtained by The News Tribune, was completed Oct. 19, five weeks before the shootings.
It was one of the factors considered by Thomas Felnagle, the Superior Court judge who set bail for Clemmons at $150,000. County prosecutors say the number was unusually high, given the underlying charges.
The reported threat to kill jail workers appeared in the evaluation, along with notes describing hallucinations. Clemmons said he had them back in May before his arrest. He remembered seeing “people drinking blood and people eating babies, and lawless on the streets, like people were cannibals.”
Those visions had passed, he said.
Two psychologists from Western State Hospital, Melissa Dannelet and Carl Redick, concluded Clemmons was dangerous.
“He presents with increased risk for future dangerous behavior and for committing future criminal acts jeopardizing public safety and security,” the evaluation states.
Those risk factors included “previous violence, young age at first violent incident, relationship instability and prior supervision failure,” Dannelet and Redick wrote.
The Seattle Times give a chilling tick-tock of the Four Days in May that set the stage for the Lakewood massacre.
Clemmons may be dead, but the quest to hold his enablers – all of them — accountable for their action and inaction has only just begun.
***
Here is a list of fund-raising efforts/donation stations to help the families of the Lakewood PD Four.
I spotlighted the statistics on Huckabee’s liberal clemency-mania yesterday. Erick Erickson has more.
Update 1:14pm Eastern. UGH: The getaway driver is believed to be a former cellmate of Clemmons from Arkansas. Via TNT:
The three men – two of whom are brothers – arrested so far in connection with Maurice Clemmons have all been booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of four counts of first-degree rendering criminal assistance for first-degree murder.
The third man, 47, is believed to be a half-brother of Clemmons, the Sheriff’s Department reported.
Two others are being detained – the suspected getaway driver, 43, and Clemmons’ sister. The getaway driver is believed to be a former cellmate of Clemmons in Arkansas, according to law enforcement and KIRO TV.
One of those booked into jail is a 20-year-old associate of Clemmons who also was charged with third-degree assault on a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy in May.
The deputy tried to arrest the man and he fought back, according to charging documents. The deputies were evenutally able to gain control over the three.
The 20-year-old man pleaded guilty in September two counts of third-degree assault. He was sentenced to 63 days in jail and ordered to besupervised for two years by DOC.
The man also was convicted in September of conspiracy to possession a controlled substance with the intent to deliver.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Another police ambush in Washington state
December 22, 2009 12:10 PM by Michelle Malkin
21 CommentsMemorial for Lakewood PD officers expected to draw 20,000-plus
December 8, 2009 10:50 AM by Michelle Malkin
23 Comments
The war on cops
December 4, 2009 09:22 AM by Michelle Malkin
612 CommentsViolent felon granted clemency by Huckabee now sought in Lakewood, WA police ambush; Update: Huck PAC posts statement; Update: Search continues; how Clemmons played Arkansas; Update: Huck whitewashes on O’Reilly (and vice versa); Update: Clemmons is dead
November 29, 2009 09:58 PM by Michelle Malkin
209 Comments
Categories: Maurice Clemmons
Patterico
» Rick Santorum and the two playbooksRiehl World View
» Romney's Blood Is Blue, Not ConservativePundit & Pundette
» King Barack vs. the NonconformistsJustOneMinute
» Cat Blogging In A Harsh New LightGateway Pundit
» Top Leftist Blog: Obama Must Quash Religious Freedom to Save Earth From Global Warming
Rob, there are black people in our society who are more trustworthy than many whites, so it is in fact unfair to lump them in with these ghetto rats that just want to mooch off of society..
Individuals should be judged on their character & associations, not their race.. There’s nothing Politically Correct about doing the right thing..
And I should have added…
No more crys of RAAAAAAACIST!
I’m just glad this POS is out of our lives forever, where he can’t harm anyone else. He’s done enough damage to society.
I hope even liberal Seattle takes the idiots who helped him, and hangs them out to dry.
If he was a “convert” to islam, I doubt anyone will say anything, for fear of being called a “racist”.
Rob – Put a sock in it. That dog won’t hunt.
Yeah, heaven forbid that someone is offended… in America we have the right not to be offended I guess…. sigh
And anyway, YOU put a sock in it, or keep talking, I really don’t care.
I don’t think the scales balance… sorry.
I’m not offended by ignorance. I live in mixed neighborhood because I choose to. The black folks here are good hardworking people and are my neighbors and friends. They hate Clemmons more than you do, because they have to deal with the bigotry, like yours, that results.
Yes, this is America. You have the right to be wrong. You want a lilly white culture, try Sweden. Let me know how that goes.
With your attitue our grandchildren will be living in a brown socialist country… but I won’t be around to know how that goes.
Enjoy your diversity…. there won’t be any for your grandchildren.
I am done with this thread… getting late. bye bye
Good riddance, you tasteless, small-minded racist j*rk.
Beer summit in hell tonight for this guy. And what did he accomplish with his putrid life?
Thank God the arresting officer was on his toes and didn’t become yet another murdered cop.
Each person who played a part in Clemmons being released, on multiple occasions, needs to give an account for why they made the decisions they made.
Yes, Mike Huckabee played a part. And now Mike Huckabee has given his account of the decision he made and why he made it. It’s well worth reading and asking yourself how you would have responded, once you know all of the factors that did, and didn’t, go into the decision.
Mike Huckabee is responsible and accountable for the decisions made by Mike Huckabee. You can be as angry as you want at him for taking a 108 year sentence, given to a 16 year old for burglary and robbery charges, and commuting that sentence to 47 years after Clemmons had already served more time (11 years) than most people of another skin color even receive in total sentence.
Huckabee did not pardon Clemmons. (and no one else did, either)
Huckabee did not parole Clemmons. Others did, and they need to give their own account for why they did so.
When Clemmons was back in prison in 2004 for a parole violation, Huckabee was not the one who failed to pursue charges and in fact dropped them, allowing Clemmons to go free. Those who did so need to give their own account for their actions.
Huckabee should not be held accountable for the actions of anyone other than himself. Huckabee is not the one who continued to avoid extradition of Clemmons back to Arkansas.
Huckabee is not the one who ignored signs of psychotic behavior in Washington.
I take no issue with people holding Huckabee accountable for the decisions he made and the actions he took.
I take great issue with people acting like Huckabee is nearly solely responsible for Clemmons being released from custody in Washinton state just before he shot and killed four of our nation’s finest.
And I take great issue with people who take a sick joy in hoping that the murder of four police officers may be used as a political weapon against a politician.
Once Clemmons was back in custody, the fact that Huckabee reduced Clemmons’ original sentence from 108 years to 47 years became moot. Those who re-released Clemmons, under much worse circumstances, are much more accountable for the actions Clemmons took upon his re-release.
Where are the calls for accountability from the parole board?
Where are the calls for accountability from the prosecutor in Little Rock who didn’t keep Clemmons in prison in 2004 or get him brought back to Arkansas for his repeated parole violations?
Where are the calls for accountability from the Washington judge?
Why are the attacks only directed at Mike Huckabee?
Because Huckabee is the only one of political significance and Huckabee was supposed to be a conservative. Most of the others who let him go were probably Democrats, and Democrats are supposed to be evil. Otherwise they wouldn’t be Democrats. We all expect it, and the rotten kind of people who vote for Democrats let it slide.
I am very curious about the reasons that were given for Clemmons’ orginal severe sentence. That seems so obviously way over the top.
It would not surprise me if he had a really ugly juvenile record that came out in the sentencing process, but we will probably never know because it is sooooooo important to ‘protect’ juvenile thugs no matter how vile their behavior was.
Exactly. And I object strongly to the politicalization of the murders of these four police officers.
Clemmons is presumed to be the one who pulled the trigger. The focus should be on Clemmons, and then you expand out from there to examine everyone around or involved with Clemmons, including everyone who was involved in the judicial process in both states, and Clemmons’ associates both inside and outside of prison. This could include the Nation of Islam, and this could have been a Jihadist attack.
Mike Huckabee is certainly one of the people involved in that sphere around Clemmons. Mike Huckabee can and should be held accountable for the decisions and actions of Mike Huckabee alone. Others in the sphere around Clemmons can and should be held accountable for their own decisions and actions.
To make Mike Huckabee the focus of this discussion, in the hopes that it will end his political career, is exceedingly wrong, biased, and repulsive.
Again, the focus should be on Clemmons, the man who (presumably) pulled the trigger multiple times to kill four police officers. Then expand to the sphere around Clemmons and treat everyone involved equally and fairly. The focus should not be on Huckabee, excluding the roles played by those who released Clemmons multiple times after Huckabee’s involvement.
It just disgusts me that the murder of police officers is being politicized.
I want to clarify that I do believe Clemmons was the man who pulled the trigger multiple times to kill four police officers. The reason I say (presumably) is because I respect the rule of law, and Clemmons is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Of course, there will be no trial of a dead man, so Clemmons will remain presumed innocent from a legal standpoint. But if it is true that Clemmons had a gunshot wound from the initial shooting, and had in his possession one of the officers’ guns, then there is little doubt that Clemmons was in fact the killer of those four officers.
If you read Huckabee’s account, it appears that he believed racism had something to do with the original 108 year sentence.
I know the race card gets played far too often, but that doesn’t mean that racism is never a legitimate factor. I don’t think that either you or I can accurately judge how much of a factor racism played in the original sentence. But Mike Huckabee was born and raised in Arkansas, and saw first-hand instances of racism. Huckabee says that Clemmons had already served more time (11 years) than most whites received in total sentence for similar crimes. Even when Huckabee reduced the sentence from 108 years to 47 years, that was still a steep sentence and did not guarantee that Clemmons would be paroled by the board.
One thing that is clear to me is that Huckabee is not racist against people whose skin is darker than his. Someone who was racist against blacks would never have reduced the 108 year sentence given to a 16 year old black.
If Clemmons had no prior juvenile record, then Huckabee’s decision was more than reasonable and the original sentence would certainly seem to smack of racism. IF.
I really want to know Clemmons’ juvenile record. Either way it would strongly affect how the whole thing looks in terms of Huckabee’s involvement.
You may not want it ‘politicized,’ but Huckabee is/was a serious presidential contender. Everything he touches/has touched becomes political.
We should all be screaming bloody murder for Clemmons’ juvenile record. It would be nice if the blogosphere would take that up.
Huckabee screwed up. Clemmons was exactly the kind of incorrigible young thug who did not belong on the street. Ever.
From wikipedia:
“Clemmons lived in Marianna, Arkansas in his early youth, and moved to Little Rock as a teen. Clemmons was arrested when he was a junior at Hall High School for carrying a .25-caliber pistol on school property.[3][4] He claimed to be carrying the gun because he was “beaten by dopers”, and said he had “something for them” if they attacked him again.[3] In 1989, a 17-year-old Clemmons and two other accomplices robbed a woman at midnight in the parking lot of a Little Rock hotel bar. Clemmons pretended to have a gun in his pocket and threatened to shoot her if she did not give him her purse. When she responded, “Well, why don’t you just shoot?”, Clemmons punched her in the head and ran off with the purse, which contained $16 and a credit card.[4]
Clemmons was accused multiple times of displaying violence during court appearances. On one occassion, Clemmons dismantled a metal door stop and hid it in his sock to use as a weapon. It was discovered and confiscated by a court bailiff. One another instance, Clemmons took a lock from his holding cell and threw it at a bailiff, but missed and accidentally hit his mother instead.[3][4] Clemmons was once accused of reaching for a guard’s pistol while being transported to court. During one trial, he was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer because the presiding judge ordered extra security, claiming Clemmons had threatened him.[3]
By 1990, Clemmons was sentenced to 108 years in prison for eight felony charges from his teenage years in Arkansas. The total prison term stemmed from multiple sentences, some of which were concurrent to others and some were consecutive.[5][6] The largest sentencing came in 1990, when he was given a 60-year prison term for breaking into an Arkansas state trooper’s home and stealing about $6,700-worth of items, including a gun.[4][7] During his sentencing on the charges, a circuit judge told Clemmons that he had broken his mother’s heart, to which Clemmons responded, “I have broken my own heart.”[3] Clemmons was also sentenced in 1989 to 35 years in prison for robbing the woman in front of the Little Rock hotel bar. Among his other sentencings were six years for weapon possession based on his high school arrest;[4] and eight years for burglary, theft and probation in Pulaski County on September 9, 1989.[5] Clemmons was not to be eligible for parole until 2015 or later.[4]“
On December 2nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm, Roland said:
Hold Huckabee accountable for the commutation in 2000.
Hold the prosecutor accountable for remaining silent about the commutation in 2000.
Hold the parole board accountable for the parole in 2000.
Hold Huckabee, the prosecutor, and the parole board accountable for Clemmons’ actions between his 2000 release and being taken back into custody in 2004.
Do not blame Huckabee for decisions and actions taken by other people between 2004 and 2009 that re-released Clemmons multiple times.
It is absolutely true that if Huckabee had not commuted the 108 year sentence to 47 years, then Clemmons would not have been free to kill those four cops.
It is also true that Clemmons had already served more time (11 years) than most whites received in their total sentence for similar crimes.
And it is also true that multiple other people were responsible for re-releasing Clemmons multiple times.
To focus all of your blame on Huckabee, and ignore the actions of others, is wrong and politically-motivated.
And I am absolutely serious that using the murder of four police officers as a political weapon disgusts me.
Nobody is ignoring the actions of other. Every bad choice after Huckabee’s bad choice were clearly worse than his choice. Those are sickening, digusting, even evil people who made those decisions.
But none of them will ever become President of the United States of America, so the significance for those of us dealing with the incident on a national scale is vastly less.
I have already said before that my guess is they were all Democrats and/or RINO’s. None of them deserve to ever be in the kind of position where they can make that kind of horrible decision ever again.
So cut it out with the straw men. If you voted for Huckabee, admit you screwed up, and get over it.
I accept that many people (involved in 2000, 2004, and 2009) are responsible for Clemmons being released multiple times.
I accept that out of those people, Huckabee is the only one who ran for President.
I accept that as this is primarily a political blog, Huckabee will get more attention than the non-politicians.
I accept that Huckabee is responsible for commuting Clemmons’ sentence from 108 years to 47 years. I accept that Huckabee’s actions led to Clemmons being parole eligible. While the board, not Huckabee, paroled Clemmons, I accept that Huckabee can be blamed for the 2000 parole because the board could not have paroled him without Huckabee reducing the sentence.
Huckabee can be fairly blamed for Clemmons’ freedom from 2000 to 2004.
Once Clemmons started violating his parole, though, he should have been sent back to prison to finish the remaining 36 years of the 47 year sentence that Huckabee gave him.
Blaming Huckabee for the actions of the Arkansas prosecutor and Washington judge is wrong.
It is you who is setting up the straw man, not me. Anyone who is blaming Huckabee for Clemmons’ freedom from 2004-2009 is setting up Huckabee as a strawman/scapegoat.
No, it is not wrong. In case you are not aware of it, counting on the people in our justice system to do something about the dangerous people who slip through the net and get back on the streets to scoop them up at the next opportunity is highly irresponsible.
Clemmons was an incorrigible thug. It was obvious back when he was just a ‘kid.’ We had gotten him behind bars. Huckabee let him out. For no good reason. And now many people have been brutalized over the years and finally several killed as a consequence.
You can rationalize that until Hell freezes over, but you’ll still be wrong to try to defend it in any way, shape or form.
If Huckabee had had a “Oh my God! What have I done?” reaction, realizing there was something wrong with his philosophy that got that thug back on the street, then you might have a point. He did not.
I’m done arguing about it. Huckabee is finished as a presidential candidate. Good enough.
Kudos to Michelle Malkin for this Tweet:
From the article:
It begs the question of whether or not the officials in Arkansas actually wanted Clemmons to be released.
Who could possibly have wanted that?
Possibly people who cared more about killing Huckabee’s political career than they cared about Clemmons killing people.
Plausible? Yes.
Probable? I don’t know. But how do you explain this:
If Clemmons had converted to Islam while in prison, and people on the left knew that he would be a Jihadist if released, what better way to hurt Huckabee’s future political chances than to intentionally re-release a Jihadist that Huckabee had released nine years earlier?
Arkansas DOC officials did NOT act normally in this case.
WHY???