Multiple police officers shot and killed near Parkland, Washington

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No Charges Yet For Maurice Clemmons' Alleged Getaway Driver

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -- Two months ago, the alleged getaway driver for cop killer Maurice Clemmons was arrested, but filling charges against him appears to have hit a snag.

Pierce County sheriff's detectives believe Darcus Allen drove Clemmons to the Forza on Nov. 29 the morning four Lakewood police officers were ambushed and killed, but charging him has proven difficult.

“Well, at this point we have so many people that have lied to us and we believe we have some telling the truth and we have to go and corroborate everything,” said Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators said none of the so-called Clemmons seven, the friends and family members accused of helping him escape capture after the slayings, are cooperating.

In Allen’s case, time could be running out because he is wanted on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas and could be sent there unless he's held on charges here.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/22360065/detail.html

[Tizzle]

Clemmons' jail tapes reveal vow to kill
The man who fatally shot four Lakewood police officers described his deadly intentions over and over in conversations with his wife and others.

He stands alone at a jailhouse phone, his only connection to the outside world in early October. Labeled as a dangerous inmate, he spends all but 60 minutes a day in "the Hole."

Maurice Clemmons has a message and a vision he needs to make sure his wife understands. It's a message he will deliver himself once he's out of the Pierce County Jail.

His voice is calm, matter of fact. He tells his wife, Nicole Smith, he'll need a gun.

"I ain't use to pack one, but every day where I go, I'm going to have one right in my front pocket."

And if police cross him?

"It's going to be the last time they (say) 'Hey mister.' Boom. Dead in they forehead."

But on this day, Nicole is distracted, even disinterested in what Maurice has to say — she's heard it all before.

Their Oct. 4 conversation is one of 28 calls the couple shared as Clemmons vowed that he would never again be handcuffed by police, face another judge or be jailed.

Clemmons, 37, knew his every word was being recorded — it's routine at the jail — but it didn't stop him from describing his deadly intentions. During the majority of the calls, he talks of a killing spree, saying it will be retribution for a lifetime of abuse at the hands of law enforcement.

At times the couple spoke of the mundane details of life — his in solitary confinement and hers at their South Tacoma home. But in reality their world was collapsing around them. He feared a life in prison and obsessed about revenge. She feared losing her home, as foreclosure was imminent.

These 20-minute conversations, never heard before by the public, were obtained by The Seattle Times through a records request. In all, more than nine hours of talks Clemmons had with his wife and others were recorded from Oct. 1 to Nov. 17 and turned over to the newspaper several weeks ago. In his own words, Clemmons reveals his state of mind two months before he would carry out the most deadly attack on law enforcement in state history. Within weeks of the calls, four police officers and Clemmons would die.

Clemmons was a public-safety threat, concluded Craig Adams, a Pierce County deputy prosecuting attorney who reviewed the recordings before releasing them to the paper. Law enforcement rarely listens to live jail calls, so Adams believed there was little authorities could have done to prevent the shootings.

"Hindsight is perfect," Adams said. "He was feeling victimized, rightly or wrongly. He felt framed."

Pierce County has held back some recordings as prosecutors work to prove that other family members and friends helped Clemmons hours after his Nov. 29 rampage. That was the day he walked into Forza Coffee Co. and killed Lakewood police Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ron Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards.

In some calls, yet to be released, Clemmons blatantly tells his friends to post bond and, once he's out, to get him a phone and a gun, Adams said.

When he did get out, he told people on Thanksgiving Day that he planned to kill cops, children and as many people as he could at an intersection, court documents show.

Clemmons eerily predicted nearly two months earlier, when he was in jail, that that day would come.

"It's going to make them cry in the end," Clemmons told his wife. "Sure is, their kids and everybody else."

More here, including recorded phone calls.

[Missizzy]

I have a son in state prison and I've always wondered why they record calls if they are not going to listen to them. The prisoners are warned that the calls are being recorded but just about any frequent flyer can tell you that they rarely are. I imagine we could learn an awful lot if we paid a recruit to sit there all day and listen to and transcribe these calls.

We might be able to save a life or two. This is devastatingly sad to listen to.

[Texas Mist]

Charges Filed Against Clemmons’ Alleged Getaway Driver

Posted: 10:51 am PST March 2,2010 Updated: 11:37 am PST March 2,2010
TACOMA, Wash. -- Maurice Clemmons’ alleged getaway driver was charged with four counts of first-degree aggravated murder in connection to the deaths of four Lakewood police officers.

Darcus Allen has been in jail for three months, but charges were not filed against him until Tuesday.

According to probable cause documents, Allen was with Clemmons on Thanksgiving Day when Clemmons "told everyone that he intended to murder police officers."

On the day of the murders, Nov. 29, documents said Allen drove Clemmons to the Parkland Forza coffee shop and waited down the street for him while he ambushed and killed the officers: Tina Griswold, Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards.

After the murders, Allen drove to a parking lot near Clemmons’ home and left the truck, documents said. Allen later checked into a Federal Way motel under a false name and was arrested on Dec. 1 on a fugitive warrant out of Arkansas.

more here

http://www.kirotv.com/news/22717389/detail.html

[Missizzy]

Congratulations to the Seattle Times!! They deserved the Pulitzer. IMO, they did a fine job with keeping the public informed and setting the perfect tone in a tragic chain of events.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...tzerslist.html

Seattle Times wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Lakewood officers' slayings


"The Seattle Times has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of the shooting deaths of four Lakewood Police officers and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect, Maurice Clemmons. The award, shared by the newspaper staff, is the eighth Pulitzer Prize won by The Seattle Times, and the first since the paper won two in 1997....."

more at link

[Salem]

Please continue here:

WA - Multiple police officers shot and killed near Parkland #2 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

WA - Multiple police officers shot and killed near Parkland #2 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Thanks,

Salem