Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of killing four Lakewood, Wa., police officers Sunday in a coffee shop, was shot and perhaps seriously wounded by one of the officers before fleeing, the Seattle Times reports. Investigators have no indication that Clemmons had a motive aimed at any of the particular officers who were gunned down. “He was upset about being incarcerated,” said a Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman. “He was just targeting cops.”
The four officers were killed at 8:15 a.m. as they worked on their laptops at the coffee shop. The first two officers were “flat-out executed,” while the third tried to stop the gunman and the fourth fired at him, said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. Clemmons has a long criminal record in Arkansas and Washington. He was released from custody in Pierce County just a week ago, and was facing a charge of raping a child. Family members described him as being in a state of mental deterioration. Last spring, he was accused of punching a sheriff’s deputy in the face.