4 police officers ambushed, slain in Tacoma 11/29/09

TACOMA, Wash. - Four police officers were shot and killed this morning in what authorities called a targeted ambush at a coffee house in Washington state, a sheriff's official said.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told The News Tribune in Tacoma one or two gunmen burst into the Forza Coffee Co. and shot the four uniformed officers as they were working on their laptop computers, then fled the scene.

Troyer said investigators believe the officers were targeted, and it was not a robbery.

"It looks like a flat-out ambush," Troyer told the newspaper.

The four officers were about to go to work, Troyer said. He said officers were looking for a male suspect who fled on foot, and "at this point we may be looking for another person."

He could not immediately say what agency the officers were from. The coffee shop is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle.

"The four of them are known by everybody here," Troyer said. "We haven't got any information as to why this happened."

Roads were blocked around the attack. Dave Gabrielson, a clerk at Foot Mart about a block away from the coffee shop, told the newspaper all was quiet when he opened the store at 8 a.m. About 30 minutes later, "All of a sudden a million cops were zooming up and down the road," Gabrielson said.

He said he saw officers bring a police dog into a nearby apartment complex.

The baristas who were inside the shop are "stunned and shocked, traumatized," Troyer said.

"We hopefully will have answers, but there is nothing more we can tell you," Troyer told KING-TV. "That's as cold-hearted as it is."

Last month, Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton was shot and killed Halloween night as he was sitting in a cruiser with trainee Britt Sweeney. Sweeney was grazed in the neck.

Christopher Monfort, 41, of suburban Tukwila, was charged in the shooting. Days after the shooting, Seattle detectives attempted to question Monfort at his residence. Police say that Monfort then ran from the detectives and tried to use a gun. The detective shot him.

Authorities also linked Monfort to the October firebombing of four police vehicles, with prosecutors saying Monfort waged a "one-man war" against law enforcement.

Monfort remained hospitalized.


anyone live near the area?

 

this reminds me of that Oakland PD shooting. 4 cops at once.

 

Jeff, what is this?

 

Hope they find this POS and if he happens to turn up dead, sorry. He doesn't deserve to live.

Prayers and condolences to the families of the murdered officers.

 

Thought it was something like that, but wasn't sure. Thanks.

 

Well something else to piss me off.. This weekend just fucking sucks

 

i'm amazed at the kind of people that are out there. just shows you the kind of evil cops deal with.

 

i live about an hour away from tacoma. this is terrible. wtf is wrong with people???

 

and people wonder why some Police Officers beat criminals up. I don't know how the majority of them, don't beat the crap out of the criminals.

 

it's sad to see that people don't really understand why cops are the way they are until something like this happens. i just try to keep in mind that cops are just regular people that swore to protect us citizens from harm even though they might come of as jerks sometimes. at the end of the day they put their life on the line for US because others don't want to. of course you always have your bad apples in the bunch but i think most cops have good intentions.

 

did you see all the cops around the area? i could only imagine the amount of cops that came down there.