LAKEWOOD, Wash. — Four uniformed police officers were shot to death Sunday as they sat in a coffee shop near Tacoma, Wash., in what one law enforcement official called “a flat-out ambush.”
“This was an execution, no doubt,” Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, told The News Tribune of Tacoma and Seattle. “This was a targeted attack.”
The four officers were a patrol team for the police department of Lakewood, a suburb of 58,000 people located south of Tacoma. The force is relatively new, about a decade old.
Mr. Troyer’s force received the 911 call at 8:15 a.m. Pacific time. The News Tribune reported on its Web site that a man with a handgun walked into a Forza Coffee Company cafe and shot the officers, three men and a woman, as they were checking their laptop computers. The gunman then fled on foot.
Speaking later in the day, Mr. Troyer said, “We have no motive at all,” adding, “I don’t think when we do find out what it is, it’s going to make sense or be worth it.”
He added that there appeared to be no connection to the slaying of a Seattle police officer, Timothy Brenton, who was sitting in his patrol car on Halloween night. Several days later, a suspect was shot, the police said, when he tried to use a gun while fleeing. The suspect, Christopher Monfort of suburban Tukwila, was said by the police to have played a role in the firebombing of four police vehicles in October.
The Forza chain has two dozen shops in the state of Washington. The shooting took place at the location in unincorporated Pierce County, about a quarter-mile from Lakewood, in a small shopping center with a nail salon, a teriyaki restaurant and a cigar shop. Residents described it a low-crime area, and Mr. Toyer said he did not think that robbery was a motive.
Police from at least four departments were setting up roadblocks and scouring the roads. buildings and parking lots around the coffee shop in a search for the shooter. At least one helicopter and police dogs were used in the search.
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information about the slayings. Mr. Troyer said that the sheriff’s department was receiving “lots of tips” in cities around the state.
Initially, there were conflicting reports whether one or two men were involved. The lead suspect was said to be about 5 foot 8 inches tall, in his 20s or 30s with scruffy facial hair and wearing a black coat and blue jeans. “Someone came in and opened fire,” Mr. Troyer said
There were other customers and baristas inside the shop at the time of the shooting, although none were apparently hit by gunfire.
Brad Carpenter of Forza Coffee told The Associated Press that his staff was unharmed and was spending the day answering questions by police investigators.
“I’m a retired police office, so this really hits close to home for me,” he said.
The employees, Mr. Troyer said, “were stunned and shocked, traumatized.”
Another blow to the thin blue line.
