Sunday, November 29, 2009

Forza Ambush

Forza is an Italian word that means "force" or "strength." It is used in shouting yells at football (soccer) games in Europe, loosely, as "Forward," as in "Forward *name of team*."

Update

Police in Seattle have shot and killed the AfricanAmerican man suspected of executing four Lakewood, Wash., police officers.

ABC News has confirmed that Maurice Clemmons was killed after police followed leads to a city address where he was hiding, after gunfire was exchanged. Seattle police had been watching several homes, with officers assigned to watch each location.

Clemmons, 37, had been the focus of an intense two-day manhunt that included a systematic raid of the homes of his friends and family, who were believed to have been helping him evade capture.

Police said Monday, November 30, that Clemmons was believed to have been armed while on the run, possibly with several guns. Calling him "dangerous," they said, was an understatement.

Police said on Tuesday, December 1, that they believe Clemmons' friends and family had been providing authorities with false leads all along. It was those misleading tips, they said, that led police and SWAT members to surround a Seattle home for 11 hours Sunday night into Monday.

The standoff in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood ended Monday morning when a police robot and SWAT members confirmed that Clemmons had been able to flee the area undetected.

Authorities say Clemmons had no ties to the house he was believed to have been hiding in and that they believe he was dropped off in the neighborhood Sunday evening.

The area was described as hilly and wooded, providing lots of hiding places.

Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer told ABC News Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV that the raids Monday were being carried out "to collect evidence against him and against those helping him evade us."

Clemmons suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen in a brief shootout with the Lakewood officers he ultimately killed as they sat in a coffee shop Sunday morning, preparing for their next shift.
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On November 29, 2009, an ambush of police officers occurred at a Forza coffee shop in the USA.

The four police officers were shot and killed Sunday morning in what authorities called a targeted ambush at the shop. The Forza Coffee Company is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington State, specifically in Lakewood, about 60 kilometres south of Seattle.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says that the officers were in a coffee establishment, near 116th Street and Steele Street, on the east side of the Air Force base at about 8:30 a.m.

(In the wake of the Fort Hood shooting, no media speculation has occurred as to the relationship to this location and the previous multiple shooting. The military backstory to this incident, however, might turn out to be significant.)

Troyer says the officers were preparing for their shift when a suspect or suspects "walked in with a handgun, opened fire multiple times and then fled the scene," said Troyer. Police are searching for a male suspect (maybe two?) and interviewing witnesses.

Troyer called it an "ambush."

"We hopefully will have answers, but there is nothing more we can tell you," Troyer said. "That's as cold-hearted as it is."
Troyer would not say what agency the officers were from until families could be notified.

The suspects are an AfricanAmerican male and a Caucasian male. Troyer said one of the suspects are 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-10, 20s to 30s, scruffy appearance, with one seen wearing a black coat and blue jeans.

He said they are looking to see if there is any surveillance cameras that may have caught the suspect or suspects on video.

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