Seattle police officer shot dead on Halloween; Possible connection with arson

Seattle police are looking for possible connections between Saturday night's fatal shooting of veteran Officer Timothy Brenton and the torching nine days earlier of four police vehicles at a maintenance yard on South Charles Street.

Both were "very well-planned and targeted attacks," said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb.

Police are asking for the public's help in both incidents, Whitcomb said.

No connections between the two incidents have been made, Whitcomb said, noting there is a sharp difference between damaging police vehicles and killing a police officer. But the close timing of the incidents and the sophisticated nature of both attacks warrant scrutiny, Whitcomb said.

"So we can't rule anything out and we can't rule out the fact that someone intended to find and kill [police] on Saturday, and they had a plan that was very orchestrated, and they performed this murderous plan and made a successful escape for the time being," he said.

Police officials say the driver of the car that pulled alongside Brenton's patrol car, and from which the shots were fired, backed up and turned around before driving away.

The move was risky because it gave a student officer with Brenton time to get out of the patrol car and return fire, Whitcomb said.

The maneuver suggests the driver didn't want to drive past the patrol car's dash-mounted camera and possibly had a planned escape route.

The Charles Street incident on Oct. 22, which remains unsolved, also involved a "considerable amount of time planning and executing," Whitcomb said. Whitcomb said he was basing that conclusion on the extent of the destruction and evidence that hasn't been publicly disclosed.

News reports at the time of the torching said fliers were left at the scene referring to the case of a King County sheriff's deputy accused of assaulting a teenage girl in a SeaTac holding cell Nov. 29, 2008, after she kicked a shoe at him. The deputy was fired Sept. 29 over the beating, which was captured on surveillance tape.

Police haven't confirmed the reports of the fliers.

Three Seattle police cars and an RV used as a mobile precinct were torched in the maintenance yard at 714 S. Charles St., where police, fire and other city vehicles awaiting maintenance work are stored.

Workers at the yard saw a suspicious-looking man walking through a parking lot about 5 a.m. As they tried to talk to him, flames began erupting from the police cars and the man ran from the scene.

Police concluded the fires were deliberately set. There were reports of explosions, but police declined to confirm that.

The drive-by shooting of Brenton shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday represented something the department had not seen before: the apparent targeting of police at random.

"It was incredibly brazen and bold," said Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel, who called the shooting an "assassination."

Brenton, 39, a field training officer, and officer-trainee Britt Sweeney were seated in their parked squad car discussing an earlier traffic stop when Sweeney sensed danger over her left shoulder and yelled for her partner to duck.

A car pulled up alongside the officers' car in the 100 block of 29th Avenue shortly after 10 p.m., and someone inside opened fire.

Bullets grazed Sweeney's back as she hunkered down. Brenton was struck by several gunshots and died instantly.

Sweeney, 33, grabbed the police radio and called for help, jumped from the car and fired several rounds at the gunman's sedan as it backed away from the cruiser, turned around and sped down the Leschi street, police said Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference Sunday afternoon, Mayor Greg Nickels called the shooting "a coldblooded killing."

Police have not identified any suspects or a motive in the shooting. Asked if the shooting could be gang-connected, Pugel said nothing had been ruled out.

In a briefing Monday morning before the City Council, Interim Police Chief John Diaz said the shooter apparently watched the earlier traffic stop conducted by the two officers and then ambushed them.

"This was a hit on law enforcement, a hit on government, not this particular officer," he said.

Footage from all cameras from patrol cars that were in the vicinity Saturday night is being examined for clues. Cameras from local businesses and red-light cameras are also being examined, he said.

"This was a profound tragedy. A shock to our senses," said Diaz, apologizing for being emotional. "It's a family."

Diaz said the department is getting many tips, and Clear Channel has donated four billboards to try to help solve the shooting. He said the department has made changes in deployment of officers but didn't give any specifics.

Police spent Sunday night and early today looking into people previously arrested for threats to police and obstruction to see where they were on Saturday night, according to a law-enforcement source.

Police said Brenton had not been the target of any threats.

David Gomez, the assistant special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the FBI, said the bureau has opened an investigation file — routine in all fatal police shootings — and that agents and supervisors are culling their informants for leads.

"Sooner or later, someone is going to talk," he said.

He said that the FBI has offered "its full resources" to the Seattle Police Department and that, if the case remains unsolved, the bureau will offer a federal reward.

Brenton, of Marysville, was a married father of two young children, a boy and a girl, said the slain officer's uncle, Jon Brenton, 50, of Kingston.

Timothy Brenton had been with the department since December 2000.

"Everybody loved him," Jon Brenton said Sunday. "I don't think there was any reason anybody would come after him."

A Snohomish County sheriff's deputy was parked outside the slain officer's Marysville home Sunday. He said the family did not wish to comment.

The slain officer's father and another uncle are retired Seattle police officers, and his brother-in-law is a Seattle firefighter, Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz said.

Brenton transferred to the Seattle Police Department from the police department in La Conner, Skagit County.

Sweeney, of Seattle, was treated for minor injuries at Harborview Medical Center. Pugel said she was resting at home Sunday and declined to release much about her life out of concern that she remains a target.

"We are concerned with her safety. It is a miracle she is alive," said Pugel, who praised Sweeney's quick thinking and behavior that he likened to that of a veteran officer.

Police said Sweeney recently completed six months of training at two police academies and had been in field training for about a month.

In Seattle, student officers are paired with field training officers in a "job shadow-type role," police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said. Student officers generally work in field training for about 3 ½ months.

Investigators tentatively have concluded that a rifle was fired at the officers, according to a Seattle police source briefed on the matter.

Kent Holt, 28, was at a Halloween party near the scene and was outside on the deck of a multiplex when he heard "at least 10" gunshots. He said he thought it was fireworks until the street flooded with police cars.

Investigators have questioned one man in connection with the shooting, but police are only calling him a "person of interest."

That man had been booked into the King County Jail on Friday for threatening police but was released on bond Saturday.

Police questioned him shortly after the shooting and rearrested him for investigation of obstruction, according to a law-enforcement source.

Awaz Maki Madow, 25, on Monday was ordered held on $30,000 bail — far less than the $150,000 city prosecutors requested.

Madow, 25, pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction. Police documents say that on Friday he threatened a King County Jail sergeant who had been assigned to his pending case. According to a police report, Madow told the sergeant he might have to "take someone out" and that he talking of killing a Seattle police officer and a Corrections officer.

The last Seattle police officer to die in the line of duty was Joselito "Lito" Barber, 26, who was killed Aug. 13, 2006, when an SUV driven by Mary Rivas ran a red light and struck his patrol car.

Rivas was sentenced to 20 years in prison for vehicular homicide in November 2007.

The last Seattle officer to be gunned down was Antonio Terry, 36, who was fatally shot June 4, 1994, when he stopped to help two men, Quentin Ervin and Eric Smiley, whose vehicle had broken down on an Interstate 5 offramp.

Smiley was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Ervin also was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

At a news conference Monday morning, African-American leaders denounced the killing, calling it an "assassination" and saying these acts won't be tolerated in their community.

The Rev. Harriett Walden, director of Mothers for Police Accountability, said that though her organization is a police watchdog group, "in this moment we stand in solidarity with the Seattle Police Department in the loss of their fallen comrade."

They encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

"In order to stop the violence, we need to break the code of silence," said Pastor Patrinell Wright, head of the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010186628_webcopshot02m...

Don't shoot cops

Shooting at cops doesn't help the cause of freeing humanity. It puts rhetorical ammunition into controllers' hands and gives them an excuse to appropriate more funds for more uniformed enforcers. This is thoughtless violence, helps no one, attracts no one to the cause who is sane, helps justify the control grid.

Re: Don't Shoot cops: bugger off

This is not really something that :"anarchists" did, in all likelihood. This is an example of a mostly non-political person breaking out of their normal social role and fighting back against the soldiers of the state. Bugger off, this isn't something you can critique.

Update on Seattle cop killing!

Indeed, there is no indication, from what we know thus far, that the shooter, the arsonist, or Christopher Monfort are anarchists. There were flyers left at the arson referencing a high-profile police brutality case here in the Seattle area* and advertising the October 22nd Coalition march later that evening (here in Seattle, O22 is mostly dominated by, and serves as a front for, the RCP though I hear that it's different in other places). On the other hand, so far as I've been able to discern Mr. Monfort is hardly non-political, while in school, he wrote at least one paper arguing in favor of the tactic of jury nulification - whereby jurors confront the institutional racism of the judicial system be refusing to convict regardless of evidence. All indications are that Mr. Monfort is a very intelligent man with fairly radical politics, though again, no indication he is an anarchist.

Tactically speaking, this didn't do much for furthering mass consciousness of the oppressive nature of the state, but as the poster above said, I think that misses the point. Most any action that confronts the state will be portrayed by the mainstream media and digested by mainstream america as crazy, ill-informed, terroristic, or whatever other blanket condemnation they decide to use. This is one of the real-world problems with pro-organizational arguments.

From an insurrectionist perspective (even if that insurrection is seated firmly in an armchair!), the assasination of a cop has merit. It is an immediate response to the very real structures of domination affecting our lives. As such, I would argue that the action should be taken as that. Most acts of rebellion, prole-revolt, (or whatever you want to call it) by most people are not carried out based on an analysis of furthering a mass movement, they are responses to concrete situations and realities. As such I think Monfort, as an individual facing state repression and accusations of arson and murder, deserves the support of anarchists and others interested in fighting the state and furthering human freedom.

It is not productive to run from this or try to criticize the action as damaging the cause of liberation, trying to distance ourselves and making ourselves look "rational," this is exactly what liberals and progressives do when any sort of confrontation occurs, and amounts to capitulation to the state and the status quo. It only serves to water down our politics (unless they were already diluted?) to argue about the action. Is this action having an effect upon policing in Seattle? Yes. Does this mean the act should be condemned? No. Nor should we attempt tyo paint it as an example of anarchist political action unless and until the actors themselves place it into that context. That said, I think it is possible to speculate on the action from an anti-politicalperspective, with the understanding that facts might surface changing that entirely. It is critical to stress that right now, all we know is what the police tell us is truth.

As of this writing, Monfort is still in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds. The attorney hired by his family has, thus far, been denied access to him on the grounds that he has not requested an attorney (a dubious claim considering he is in custody and cut off from access to the outside world). Just last night, the local news was making some sort of revelation about child porn on his computer, apparently trying yet again to paint him as a horrible monster who clearly would revel in murdering heroic police officers. Monfort is being roundly condemned and convicted by pretty much all sectors, I would hope that anarchists would continue their spotted tradition of standing firm to their ethics and beliefs despite popular sentiment.

*Local media was quick to point out the officers in the incident were King County Sherrif's Deputies, not Seattle Police so as paint the arson as misinformed and ignorant, which, of course is what the mainstream press will always do when reporting stories about attacks on they system in which they are so enmeshed.

On Friday afternoon the SPD

On Friday afternoon the SPD Swat team in conjunction with other local cops shot and apprehended 41 year old Christopher Monfort in conjunction with both the shooting and the arson. They are claiming he is a "domestic terrorist" or some shit. Currently Mr. Monfort is in the hospital in serious condition recovering from the gunshot wounds.

The media has been (unsurprisingly) parroting the SPD's drivel in whole.

There is a lot more if you go to the Seattle Times website and look back through the stories. Here's the latest: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010226607_suspect08m.ht...

--ingrate

Infoshop refuses to post these articles

In case anyone's interested, Infoshop has refused to post both this article and the original one about the arson. Guess it wasn't featured in counterpunch so it's not worthwhile enough.

I guess it's not as relevant

I guess it's not as relevant as Chuck0's sci-fi and fantasy Wiki.