Deputies ran check on Clemmons hours before 4 officers slain, reports show

Source: Seattle Times

Less than eight hours before Maurice Clemmons opened fire in a coffee shop, killing four Lakewood police officers, a pair of Pierce County sheriff's deputies crossed paths with him while on routine patrol. One of the deputies, familiar with Clemmons, even ran a check for outstanding warrants — and came up empty. That check took place at 12:38 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2009, the same day that Clemmons committed one of the worst crimes in the history of the Pacific Northwest.

The deputies did the warrant check while following a 1976 Lincoln Continental collector car owned by Clemmons. When the Lincoln parked, one of the deputies recognized Clemmons getting out of the passenger side.

It is yet another example of how close authorities came to stopping Clemmons before he acted on a pledge to kill as many police officers as he could.

After being released from the Pierce County Jail on Nov. 23, 2009 — six days before the shootings at a Forza Coffee shop in Parkland — Clemmons took a number of steps that could have resulted in a warrant being issued for his arrest or in bail-bond employees trying to hunt him down. But each time, the opportunity was missed.


Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014155225_clemmons08m.html

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This case should be the final nail in Huckabee's political career.

I'm salivating at the thought.

Those poor families.

a warrant check - but what else could they do? The entire situation is heartbreaking.

This case revealed failings in the system here in Washington. However, the details Prosecutor Mark Lindquist laid out seemed to point to a whole lot more failings in Arkansas surrounding Clemmons.

Aren't they notified by an email? If that person has a day off or is on vacation, who is watching? It's a false sense of security.

You just couldn't pay me enough to put my life on the line every day like they do, across the nation.

I feel for the families of those slain officers. What a tragic thing. As for the thug criminal, I hope he is where he belongs now.