‘Cop killer’ Clemmons is shot dead in Seattle

A lone policeman has shot dead Maurice Clemmons, the man who was wanted for the execution-style murders on Sunday morning of four Washington state police officers as they drank coffee in a Pierce County diner.

Seattle's assistant police chief Jim Pugel said today Clemmons was carrying a handgun he had stolen from one of the dead officers when he was spotted by a patrolman walking near a stolen car in south Seattle at about 2.45am.

The officer ordered the suspect to freeze and to show his hands. Pugel said: "He wouldn't stop. The officer fired several rounds."

Clemmons, 37, was thought to have been injured in the initial incident after one of his police victims managed to get off a shot before dying. He eluded capture for almost two days, despite hundreds of law enforcement officials manning roadblocks. It has been reported that certain friends and family members have been detained for aiding his escape.

On Monday SWAT teams surrounded and attacked a house in Seattle where Clemmons was believed to be holed up, but after firing tear gas into the property they discovered that it was empty.

Before Clemmons was killed, it emerged that his mental health had been the subject of concern recently, after he had told family members that he feared the Secret Service were going to arrest him because of a letter that he had written to President Barack Obama. He was also reported to have been in the habit of waking his family early in the morning and demanding that they all undress, saying that families needed to "be naked for at least five minutes on Sunday".

Clemmons had been released from custody a week before the shooting, posting bail of $15,000 to free himself from child rape charges linked to the alleged abuse of a 12-year-old female relative. He reportedly told friends on Saturday to watch the TV news because "I am going to kill some cops".

"Unfortunately, no one acted on that statement," a police spokesman said on Monday.

The former Arkansas governor and failed 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee continued to come under fire this week for his decision in 2000 to parole Clemmons, then 28, for burglary and theft of property, committed in Arkansas.

Political analysts were drawing parallels with Michael Dukakis, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, whose campaign was bedevilled by the Willie Horton affair. In 1986 Dukakis had pardoned Horton, who was serving a life sentence for murder, and then was attacked by Republicans after Horton went on to commit a rape and armed robbery. ·