Saves the cost of a trial

They got the guy who killed the four officers Sunday. From the Seattle Times:

Lakewood police shooting suspect killed by officer in South Seattle early today
Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in the slaying of four Lakewood police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle early this morning by a Seattle police officer making a routine check of a stolen car.

The shooting occurred about the same time as Pierce County sheriff's detectives took into custody a man believed to have acted as a getaway driver in Sunday's slayings of the Lakewood officers.

Police also booked three people into jail on suspicion of providing assistance to Clemmons, said sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

Several other people also will be taken into custody for helping Clemmons, Troyer said.

What happened:

The officer was on routine patrol when he saw a car with the hood up and the engine running, police officials said.

The officer ran the license plate and determined the car had been stolen, said Seattle Assistant Chief Jim Pugel.

The car had been reported stolen from the 4800 block of South Chicago Street about 12:45 a.m., a law enforcement source said.

As the officer sat in his patrol car doing paperwork on the stolen car, he noticed a man was approaching the driver's side of the patrol car from behind.

The officer immediately recognized the man as matching the description of Clemmons and got out of his patrol car, Pugel said.

"He ordered the person to stop. He ordered the person to show his hands, that person would not show his hands, and also began to run away counterclockwise around the vehicle," Pugel said.

The officer again told him to stop and he didn't comply, Pugel said.

As the officer drew his gun, the man "reached into his waist area and moved," the department said in a written statement.

The officer then fired several shots at the man, striking him at least twice, the statement said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The man collapsed near some bushes on the north side of the street, the statement said.

The man has been tentatively identified as Clemmons based on his description and other information, Pugel said.

A check of the serial number on the handgun found on Clemmons showed that it belonged to one of the Lakewood police officers, Pugel said.

Much has been made of Governor Huckabee's pardoning this moke. Turns out the facts are a bit different -- Clemmons had committed Burglary and also Robbery and at age 16, was sentenced to 108 years in jail. Huckabee did not pardon Clemmons, he commuted his sentence from 108 years to 47 years which opened him up for parole. From an interview with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Now, did you study it? Did you study it? I mean, look, governors have a lot of this stuff.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

O'REILLY: Did you study this guy? Did you spend a lot of time on it, or did you just take the advice of your advisers?

HUCKABEE: No, I looked at every case file, and I had 1,200 of these a year. This is what people need to understand. Ninety-two percent of the time they were denied. But in this case, the judge in the case was also recommending and the parole board on a 5-0 vote, because at the age of 16, the sentence he got for the crimes he committed back in 1989 was excessive for anything else that was in Arkansas.

O'REILLY: OK, but it was a bad guy in prison, and the prosecutors told you, so they say, "Hey, this is a hard-core guy. This isn't some kid who went wrong."

HUCKABEE: We didn't have any information from the prosecutors. We sent notices, which is the practice in Arkansas, to five different people: the attorney general, secretary of state, the prosecutor, the judge, and law enforcement. The only official that we have record of getting notification from is the judge who agreed with the recommendation of the parole board. So that's what we acted upon, what I acted upon. I'm responsible for that. And, you know, my heart is broken for four families tonight.

O'REILLY: Well, it's not your fault, governor. I mean, look, you've got 1,200 of these cases a year. You've got to look at them. I'm not saying it's your fault. I don't think anybody watching thinks it's your fault. But the judges in Washington state, come on. I mean, this guy moves from your state, Arkansas, to Washington state, and then he racks up eight felony charges. Eight felonies, including the rape of a 12-year-old.

HUCKABEE: That's inexcusable, Bill.

O'REILLY: And these clowns, these judges give him a $15,000 walk, which he makes through a bail bondsman. And I mean � and then they don't even return our calls to say, like you are right now, "Here's why we did it." I mean, this is insane. When you have a guy like that, a rape charge against a 12-year-old, and you let the guy out on $15,000? That's � there's no excuse on earth for that, governor. Would you agree?

HUCKABEE: I would totally agree, Bill. And one of the things that's sad is that, after this guy was commuted, that just made him parole-eligible. Then he qualified for parole and was paroled. But he violated his parole in Arkansas, was put back in prison. Now, here's the real tragedy. The prosecutors failed to file the paperwork in a timely way, and so they had to drop the charges. That's what released him the second time.

O'REILLY: And then he got back out again.

HUCKABEE: Then he went to Washington.

O'REILLY: But the judges in Washington state, they knew all of his history from age 16 onward.

HUCKABEE: Yes. But at this point, this guy is a career criminal...

O'REILLY: He's a career criminal.

HUCKABEE: ...with escalating sense of violence and psychotic behavior. And, no, there's no explanation for why he was out on the streets.

A tragedy but it is good that this asshole is dead.