True Crime

Manhunt for Cop Killer

Police close in.

Seattle police surrounded a house early Monday morning and used a loudspeaker, sirens, and gunshots to prod a suspect in the shooting of four Washington police officers to give himself up. The authorities had been seeking Maurice Clemmons, 37, an ex-convict believed to be in the area of the shooting early Sunday morning, when a gunman opened fire on police officers catching up on paperwork in a coffee shop at the beginning of their shifts. A spokesman for the police said he wasn't going to give the press "a blow-by-blow" of the negotiations; earlier he said the police weren't sure Clemmons was even in the house. Clemons has a history as a violent criminal. In 1989, at age 17, he was convicted for aggravated robbery in Arkansas. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his 95-year-long sentence in 2000. More recently, Clemmons was arrested in Washington for the alleged second-degree rape of a child, and for allegedly punching a sheriff's deputy in the face.