TACOMA, Wash. — Maurice Clemmons threatened to kill more than just cops in the days before he massacred four police officers at a coffee shop.
Schoolchildren and others also were on his list of targets, according to court records filed Wednesday.
A witness told Pierce County sheriff’s detectives that Clemmons told friends and family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner at his aunt’s home in Pacific that he planned to kill “cops, children at a school” and “as many people as he could in an intersection,” according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors.
Clemmons had bailed out of jail the day before.
None of those assembled Thursday reported the statements to police, and Clemmons repeated his desire to kill cops on Saturday, according to court records.
He made good on his threat against police Sunday morning, gunning down Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Greg Richards and Ronald Owens at the Forza Coffee Co. shop on Steele Street South.
Richards managed to shoot Clemmons in the torso before being killed.
Clemmons returned to his aunt’s home after the shooting and received treatment for his wound and fresh clothing before being driven away, according to the affidavit.
A woman who lives in the house told detectives that before he left Clemmons said “he was going with a girl, he was going to rest and he was going to heal but he wasn’t done,” the affidavit states.
Clemmons ran and hid from police until early Tuesday morning when Seattle police officer Benjamin L. Kelly shot him dead on a quiet street in the Rainier Valley neighborhood of Seattle. Authorities said Clemmons was carrying a gun taken from one of the dead Lakewood officers at the time.