Cop-killer suspect shot dead by officer

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Maurice Clemmons, 37, had a violent, erratic past, and authorities in Washington state and Arkansas — where then-Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2000 commuted his 108-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other offenses — faced tough questions about why an apparently violent and deranged man was out on the street.

On a Sunday, six days after posting bail in Washington on charges of raping a child, Clemmons walked into the coffee shop in Parkland, Wash., a suburb a few miles south of Tacoma, and killed four uniformed Lakewood police officers as they caught up on paperwork on their laptops.

"The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers," Troyer said. Investigators also reported that Clemmons told others the night before the shooting that he was going to kill police and they should watch the news, but they wrote it off as "crazy-talk."

A memorial to honor them was held in the Tacoma Dome. More than 20,000 members of the law enforcement community, emergency response agencies and the public attended.