SEATTLE — Authorities think the man sought in the slaying of four officers is alive and has been aided by a network of friends and family, a police spokesman said Monday night.
Officers believe Maurice Clemmons was shot in the abdomen during the attack on the officers at a Parkland, Wash., coffee shop and had speculated he might have died.
But Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff, said investigators have questioned several people who had provided assistance to Clemmons since the shootings Sunday morning.
“We think his network of people helping him is running out,” Troyer said. “He’s probably on his own.”
Police are also certain Clemmons, 37, was in a Seattle house Sunday night but was able to flee before police could contain the area. Police staked out the house overnight before SWAT team members determined early Monday that Clemmons wasn’t there.
“It’s unfortunate he’s been a step or two ahead of us,” Troyer said.
The realization Monday morning that the suspect had not been cornered after all prompted police to fan out across the city looking for any sign of Clemmons. Authorities posted a $125,000 reward for information leading to his arrest in the Sunday rampage.
Killed were Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards, 42.
The manhunt came as authorities in two states took heat for the fact that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime spree in Arkansas that landed him a 108-year prison sentence. He was released after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.
“This guy should have never been on the street,” said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood, where all four slain officers worked. “Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out.”
Police said they are not sure what prompted Clemmons to kill the officers as they worked on their laptop computers at the beginning of their shifts. He was described as increasingly erratic in the past few months and had been arrested earlier this year on charges that he punched a sheriff’s deputy in the face.
Troyer told the Tacoma News-Tribune that Clemmons indicated the night before the shooting “that he was going to shoot police and watch the news.”
Authorities said the gunman singled out the officers and spared employees and other customers at the coffee shop in a suburb about 35 miles south of Seattle. He then fled, but not before he was apparently shot in the torso by one of the dying officers.
Investigators examined the coffee shop for clues. Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Dave McDonald said authorities found a handgun carried by the killer, along with a pickup truck belonging to the suspect with blood stains inside.
Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse.
But he was released from jail after posting bail.
