Police Kill Suspect in Officer Shootings

By GENE JOHNSON

Updated 9:16 AM EST, Tue, Dec 1, 2009

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The man suspected of gunning down four police officers -- including Sgt. Mark Renninger from Bethlehem -- in a Tacoma-area coffee shop Sunday was shot and killed by police early Tuesday, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Maurice Clemmons was shot to death in a working-class neighborhood after police tracked him down using possible hiding spots -- addresses of relatives and friends, where investigators thought Clemmons might be hiding, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the county sheriff.

Clemmons, 37, was the only suspect police had in the shootings of the four Lakewood officers.

Police said they aren't sure what prompted Clemmons to shoot the officers as they did paperwork on their laptops. Clemmons 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.

Clemmons stayed on the run for nearly two days with help from a network of friends and family who gave him places to stay, medical aid, rides and money, police said.

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 in two states were criticized amid revelations that Clemmons was allowed to walk the streets despite a teenage crime
spree in Arkansas that landed him an 108-year prison sentence. He was released early after then-Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.