Today’s Seattle Times reports the grisly story of Maurice Clemmons, his shooting of four Lakewood police officers, and of his escape which brought him for a time into the Leschi neighborhood. See the story on http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013170137_o
What I am intrigued about, since I live only two blocks from where Maurice Clemmons was dropped off by his ride, is what path did he take to get to a local crack house. I assume that the person living in the house, as stated in the Times article, is no longer a resident there. So, any clues about how he escaped the police barricade and found shelter in the “crack house”?
Any chance he never stopped at the aunts house? Maybe he was was long gone before the blocks were set…
The police set up a perimeter, and clearly didn’t have it sealed. He went to the house, there is blood evidence that it was him, he got spooked and escaped probably through the greenbelt. It would take a massive force to seal off the greenbelt area…and perhaps if Crisheda Clemmons hadn’t waited 2.5 hours from his 1st of several calls to her that day to finally mosey on over to the East precinct, the perimeter would have been more completely covered by SPD. Thank God Maurice Clemmons didn’t kill more people as a result of Crisheda’s foot dragging in reporting that he was on his way.
My understanding is that the Leschi family, including Chrisceda Clemmons, were performing at a musical event that day out-of-town and had not heard the news. Once they learned by phoning relatives what Maurice was up to (threatening to murder more people), they told him not to come, locked the house, and drove to the East Precinct Police Headquarters, where they stayed overnight.
As best I know, there was not the 2 1/2 hour delay as described in the comment by “neighbor”. The blood was outdoors on the porch. Maurice Clemmons slipped behind the house and no doubt along a home construction site to Lake Washington Boulevard, from there, on the Boulevard, how was he unobserved? It was late afternoon.
As soon as the Lakewood police identified Maurice Clemmons as the assailant, a police web extended to the homes of Clemmons’ relatives including Chrisceda. The police had implemented surveillance early on, perhaps even before notification from Chrisceda. But, once they had information from Chrisceda, one would think that the surveillance would have quickly been increased.
My question is which “greenbelt” did he use to escape? There’s one a few blocks west on East Alder, there’s another south and west through upper Leschi Park and Frink Park, and yet a third north at the Madrona Woods.
As far as I’m concerned, Chrisceda did exactly the correct thing by protecting her family and notifying the police.