“Clemmons, 37, was killed about 2:45 a.m. in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street in South Seattle,” reports the Tacoma News Tribune. KOMO has photos of the scene. Clemmons’ stomach gunshot wound was dressed with cotton balls and duct tape.
According to the Seattle Times, Clemmons, the prime suspect in the shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers Sunday, was shot when a Seattle patrolman stopped to run the plates of a stolen car. The patrolman says he saw Clemmons approaching his patrol car from behind, and got out and ordered him to stop, but Clemmons ran.
When he failed to stop or show his hands after a second order, the officer fired. “[Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim] Pugel said it was unclear whether the man displayed a weapon before he was shot.”
Now the police have turned to Clemmons’ family and acquaintances, who, they say, helped him avoid capture. In an unusual move, the Pierce County prosecutor’s office has said it may file charges against KING 5’s news helicopter, which they say hovered so closely over the Lakewood crime scene that officers couldn’t hear each other.
For some, the blame fallout begins now. Timothy Egan laid in to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the New York Times yesterday, but that comes from a distance. (I still can’t find two sources that agree on the precise number of years that Huckabee commuted.) Here in Seattle, nearer the scene, people are still grappling with their emotions. In Lakewood, it’s even more intense.