UPDATE: 4 police officers ambushed LATEST: Ark. man sought for questioning

MONDAY 1:20 p.m.: LATEST UPDATES ON THE SEATTLE COP-KILLER MANHUNT

MONDAY 4:05 A.M.: Clemmons now reportedly surrounded in Seattle neighborhood; SWAT operation underway.

PREVIOUSLY (SUNDAY 9:35 p.m.): Seattle Times reports:

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors. . . .
Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. . . .
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child.

UPDATE 10:11 p.m.: Michelle Malkin has details on Huckabee's clemency for Clemmons. As I said in the Greenroom, if Clemmons is the killer, this would make Huckabee a Republican Dukakis.

UPDATE 10:30 p.m.: Now a thread at Memeorandum. It appears Confederate Yankee was the first blogger on the Huckabee angle. Don Surber also comments. Thanks to Tacoma Mama for alerting me to the fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 10:40 p.m.: Linked by Paco Enterprises and It's Only Words. Thanks.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m.: Gabriel Malor has more at AOSHQ. And we're linked by Dave C. at Point of a Gun. Thanks.

UPDATE 2:35 a.m. Monday: Excuse the delay in updates, as I had a deadline for the The American Spectator on another topic.

The Underground Conservative calls this "Huckabee's Willie Horton moment." In an update, Michelle Malkin makes reference to the bizarre case of Seattle cop-killer Christopher Monfort. He killed a cop and torched four police cars and was described by police as a "lone domestic terrorist." Monfort was apparently into child pornography and was a general weirdo with strange political beliefs:

Monfort didn't appear to have friends, a romantic interest or close ties to his family, [former supervisor Roxy] Hill said . . .
"You couldn't connect him to any human beings, not even his parents," Hill said. . . .
Monfort would get worked up at times about political issues, decrying things such as warrantless wiretaps under President George W. Bush, [former employer Lloyd] Lezcano said. . . .
He also displayed his political views at the juvenile center, Hill said.
When she walked by classrooms, Hill said, Monfort would always be talking about inequities in the criminal-justice system.
"He was turning it into a black and white" issue, Hill said.

That was evidently Monfort's motive for his (alleged) cop-killing terrorism. Police say a note Monfort left at the scene connected the attack to a case in which two sheriff's deputies were videotaped beating a 15-year-old arrested for car theft.

There is no reason to believe that Sunday's killing was in any way related to Monfort's attack. Maybe the Pacific Northwest has become a magnet for violent cop-hating weirdos or something.

PREVIOUSLY (8:52 p.m.): KOMO-TV in Tacoma:

Four uniformed police officers were shot and killed in a bloody Sunday morning attack at a Lakewood-area coffee shop, officials said. . . .
Troyer said investigators have learned that the gunman stood in line the Forza Coffee Co. outlet at 11401 Steele St. South as if he were there to buy some coffee. When he reached the counter, the barista saw him pull a gun our of his coat. She fled, thinking the gunman was about to target her. Instead, he turned and fired point-blank at the four uniformed officers as they were working on their laptop computers, then fled the scene. . . .
One officer was shot as he attempted to struggle with the gunman. Another officer fired off some shots toward the gunman as he fled, and may have hit him, Troyer said.
"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight . . . that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said. "We hope the suspect was shot, because that would tell us who it is. There aren't a whole lot of people running around with gunshot wounds."

I've posted video in the Hot Air Greenroom. Also more at the American Spectator.