King County Prosecutors just released probable cause documents in the Halloween murder of Officer Tim Brenton.
The documents include new details that illustrate how the suspect stalked the two officers from their traffic stop on MLK to their location on 29th where he opened fire:
A witness walking her dog observed what appeared to be suspicious behavior by the driver of a car in the area. The car she observed drove past th eofficers, then turned at the next intersection, and pulled into a small park directly across from the officers. The headlights in the vehicle went off. The car then backed out of the paved area and onto a raised grassy area in the park. The car was directly facing the patrol car. The woman thought she saw two silhouettes in the car, but was not certain of this. It appeared to the woman that the occupant(s) in the car were watching the officers conduct the stop. She later described the car as a small, white or light-colored, older, foreign vehicle, with a sloped rear windshield, like a hatchback. In-car video from the officer's patrol car car later depected a car matching tha tdescription pass the officer's patrol vehicle at about 9:46pm. These images were shown to the woman who had been walking her dog in the area at the time; she said that was the car that she subsequently saw "watching" the officers.
At almost the exact time the officers left in their patrol car, the car th ewoman had been watching drove off the grass, onto Jefferson, and headed east. The woman walked a few blocks to her residence; just as she arrived there she heard multiple gunshots.
As the officers were parked [at 29th & Yesler], a resident north of them saw what she described as a white or light-colored Toyota, possibly a hatchback, driving in a manner that appeared suspicious to her. (Later she told detectives that she suspected the car might be preparing to do a "drive-by shooting.") As she watched, the car drove northbound down 29th Avenue, then saw it return southbound and drive toward East Yesler Way.
One key section that sheds additional light on the murder is the description of the shooting that took Officer Brenton's life:
As Officer Sweeney sat in the patrol car, talking with Officer Brenton, she became aware that a car had stoped almost directly adjacent to the patrol car. The street is narrow; she later said that she could have reached out and touched the other car. She sensed danger, and ducked in her seat, yelling ot Brenton to do the same. She saw muzzle flashes, heard explosions, and felt a stinging sensation on the top of her head. She was aware that bullets were striking Brenton. She immediately radioed for help, and was aware that the other car was backing away from the patrol car. She got out of the patrol car and saw the other car making a turn mid-block, by backing into a space between cars and then driving north. Officer Sweney fired approximately ten rounds from her duty weapon at the fleeing car. Officer Sweeney does not know whether any of the rounds she fired at the car struck it.
Officer Brenton was obviously dead at the scene. A search for the assailant was immediately commenced by the scores of patrol units that had responded to the scene from all over the city.
...
Further review of patrol car videos revealed that the car described above is actually captured on the Coban digital recording system installed in the car occupied by Officers Brenton and Sweeney. This image is time-stamped 9:59pm, just 8 minutes before the murder of Officer Brenton. At 21:46:50 video shows that this car passed the location where Officers Brenton and Sweeney were discussing their traffic stop in the same direction as the patrol car was parked. The car then made a right turn, toward the west, at the next street. This maneuver put the car in position to round the block and approach the patrol car from behind, southbound. At 22:06:18 headlights appear approaching from the north. The headlights stop. The interior of the patrol unit can be seen rocking, At 22:06:23, spatter appears on the front windshield of the patrol car. At 22:06:37, Officer Sweeney appears out of and in front of the patrol car, with her weapon in hand. She is speaking into her portable radio microphone. At 22:08:03 the first back up units arrive.
One man on the block saw the whole thing happen:
A man who lives very close to the scene of the shooting was smoking a cigarette outside. He saw the other car pull up next to the patrol car, watched as shots were fired from that car into the patrol car, and saw the card back down the street, turn around, and drive away. He later described the car to detectives as a white or light-colored vehicle similar to a 1980s model Toyota Corolla.
More on the ballistics and DNA evidence:
The AR-15 style rifle [found in the suspect's apartment] was submitted to the crime lab and examined by Forensic Scientist Rick Wyant. He compared it with spent bullet fragments recovered at the scene and from autopsy. Wyant matched the weapon to the rounds to the exclusion of all other weapons in the world.
Bloody clothing from [the suspect] was examined by Forensic Scientist Sarah Atterbury. Atterbury developed a DNA profile from that clothing. The profile was compared to DNA profile from the flat at Charles Street and the bandana from the shooting scene. The three profiles were matched to the same source.
And finally, evidence that the suspect tried to disguise his vehicle:
At the time of its recovery, the Datsun 210 did not have Louvers. (The video of the suspect vehicle passing Brenton and Sweeney's car clearly showed that the car had louvers). Among the items recovered in the search of [the suspect's] apartment were a cell phone and two computers. We turned those items over to Seattle Police Detective David Dunn, a member of the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force. Dunn brought us printouts of the cell phone text messages and photographs from the cell phone. Among the photographs was one in which the Datsun 210 is shown with louvers on.
