Man Shoot During Seattle Police Officer Murder Investigation

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/411940_neighbor06.html

Sources: Suspect had studied law enforcement at UW
Former school advisor said man was 'natural leader'

Friday, November 6, 2009
Last updated 11:30 p.m. PT

By CASEY McNERTHNEY, ERIC NALDER , LEVI PULKKINEN and MICHELLE NICOLOSI
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

At one point he wanted to be a policeman. He studied law enforcement
issues at a local community college and the University of Washington. A
former adviser said he was a "natural leader," but a neighbor called him
"weird."



The man Seattle detectives shot Friday afternoon outside a Tukwila
apartment complex - who authorities said was a suspect in the Halloween
night slaying of a Seattle police officer - is a 41-year-old man
Christopher J. Monfort, law enforcement sources said.

He hasn't spent jail or prison time in Washington, and court records show
two traffic infractions are the only marks on his state record. Monfort
may have been recently laid off from a job as a security guard or private
investigator, a Seattle police source familiar with the investigation
said.

Investigators also suspect him in the Oct. 22 arson of four police
vehicles, three police cruisers and one mobile command vehicle, a police
source said.

Seattle homicide detectives were at his Tukwila apartment complex, in the
13700 block of 56th Avenue South, since the morning, said Tukwila Officer
Mike Murphy.

The detectives had gone there on a tip, a day after releasing three photos
of a Datsun 210 believed to be connected to the shooting of Seattle Police
Officer Tim Brenton and wounding of his partner, Britt Sweeney. Tukwila
detectives also responded.

Three detectives confronted Monfort at the apartment complex later Friday
afternoon. He turned and ran, then pulled out a handgun and pointed it at
police, King County Sheriff's Office Sgt. John Urquhart said.

"For some reason, it did not go off," Urquhart said. "I don't know if he
tried to fire it."

Monfort allegedly then ran a short distance again, and had another
confrontation before he was shot at least twice, police said.

Investigators did not say how many shots were fired.

According to a UW graduate school abstract, the title of a project Monfort
presented in May 2007 was " The Power of Citizenship your Government
doesn't want You to know about. How to change the inequity of the Criminal
Justice System immediately, through Active Citizen Nullification of Laws,
as a Juror."

In November 2003 Monfort ran for student government at Highline Community
College, according to the student paper, The Thunderword. Monfort was
running to "make the student body more aware of the civil liberties lost
under the Patriot Act,' " the article stated.

He resigned from the student Senate in May of 2004, according to minutes
of a Highline Board of Trustees meeting.

Wanted to be a policeman

He hankered to be a Los Angeles Police officer when he lived in the
Pasadena, Calif., 18 years ago, said Rosemary Stevens, who rented a room
to him in her house. He was working as a waiter at a chain steakhouse in
Pasadena, and seemed like a "know-it- all" type person, said Stevens, who
works as an actress.

She said he couldn't get on the LAPD, "I think, because of a hiring
freeze."

Monfort studied in the administration of justice program at Highline
Community College about five years ago, said Garry Wegner, the program
coordinator at the Highline program and the man's academic adviser.

Though students in that program tend to be interested in working as police
officers or in corrections, Wegner said Monfort wasn't interested at that
point in being a cop.

Wegner said the man told him he "wanted to make a difference" in society,
and Wegner suggested he go to law school. On a Web site, Monfort described
Wegner as his inspiration to enter a program at the University of
Washington.

Older than the typical students in Wegner's program, "he was a mature,
stable, fun guy to be around," said Wegner. "Very pleasant."

"He was very smart. Put a lot of attention into his work. Good
academically. He seemed like a natural leader," Wegner said.

"He would check in with me from time to time to tell me how he was doing,"
Wegner said. "The last time I talked to him was four or five months ago.
He indicated he wanted to be (study) history, with an emphasis in
constitutional law. I told him I thought that would be a good thing for
him to do."

He said he believed the man's mother lived in Wrangell, Alaska, but he
didn't know anything about his father.

"I had high hopes for him to make some sort of constructive contribution,"
Wegner said.

Monfort's first Washington state court record is a ticket for a defective
turn signal in 2007. The second, earlier this year, is for speeding at
least 15 miles per hour over the limit. Both were in Snohomish County.

In both court cases, Monfort listed his address as an apartment at 13725
56th Avenue South - the same place where police said he was hit by at
least two bullets Friday.

Police said Thursday they believed the shooter experienced a significant
personal crisis in the recent past -- maybe the death of a loved one, a
financial hardship or another failure. They said it might have related to
his employment or position in life, investigators said.

"We do believe that although he shot a police officer, he may in fact
admire them and even act like them," Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said
Thursday. "He knows that there are very good officers, and officer Tim
Brenton was a very good officer who swore a solemn oath to protect our
citizenry."

A neighbor at the Tukwila apartment complex where Monfort lived said he
"wasn't very talkative."

"I thought he was kind of strange," said Tangee Moses, 40. "I don't know
if it was a quietness or what, he seemed to be really weird."

Besides the old hatchback car police say may have been used in the
shooting, the suspect also occasionally drove a car that looked like a
former police vehicle, said Jeffrey Moses, 49, the woman's husband.

The car had a spotlight on the driver's side, and was dark colored, the
couple said. It looked like a Crown Victoria, the type of car typically
driven by police.

The couple said the other car, the old hatchback, would leave the complex
at varying times of the night and day. Jeffrey Moses said he first saw a
cover on the hatchback about a week ago. He said he hadn't seen it before.
At 11:30 a.m. Friday, as Moses was leaving his apartment, he said he saw
three police officers wearing dark-colored uniforms, similar to ones worn
by Tukwila officers. He said they were lifting the cover slightly and
looking at the blue-colored hatchback. That would have been hours before
the shooting.

"Then it came to mind, wow, that could have been the car the police are
looking for," Moses said.

Days ago, Tangee Moses said she had thought about her neighbor's car when
she saw a description on TV of the car police suspected in the shooting.

"When I saw it, I thought, 'That looks like the neighbor's car,'" she
said. But Moses didn't call police because she didn't seem sure enough.

Moses said she heard four shots around 3:15 p.m., and peeked out of the
window. She saw police and heard someone yell something that seemed like a
command to stay inside.

Friday night, all residents of the complex were evacuated after the
Tukwila Fire Department arranged for buses to temporary housing.

Investigators also suspect Monfort in the Oct. 22 arson of four police
vehicles at the city's Charles Street maintenance yard, three police
cruisers and one mobile command vehicle, a police source said.

Police who responded to Monfort's Tukwila apartment evacuated complex
residents to temporary housing, and a remote-controlled police device was
used to clear the unit.

Police sources said a threatening note was left at the scene of an Oct. 22
arson scene, at the city's Charles Street maintenance yard, but added
specific officers were not targeted.

Left behind at the arson scene were fliers referencing "police brutality"
that specifically mentioned a recent King County case involving a
sheriff's deputy who beat a teenage girl in a SeaTac holding cell after
she kicked a shoe at him, according to a law enforcement bulletin.

Police also found evidence of pipe bombs, according to a law enforcement
source familiar with the investigation. Seattle police had no involvement
in the Sheriff's Office case.

The arson happened hours before a Seattle protest against police
brutality, but the event organizer, Rave Parks, told seattlepi.com last
month the arson case had "absolutely no connection with the Oct. 22
coalition or its members and has nothing to do with the political protest
it is seeking to develop."

City employees who were working at the yard about that day saw a
suspicious man walking in the area where the vehicles were parked. As
employees attempted to contact him, a police car erupted in flames,
officers said.

Police officials have not publicly linked Monfort to the arson
investigation.

Tangee Moses said her neighbor who was shot seemed very confident. He also
played electric guitar -- sometimes too loud. Recently he was playing so
loud Jeffrey Moses went to ask him to quiet down.

"He just sort of stared at me," the husband recalled. "'Music too loud,
huh?' Moses recalled. "He did turn off the music."

Jeffrey Moses said he had seen the man with two other people, a man and a
blond woman.

The shooting happened as police officers were still leaving KeyArena,
where thousands of people attended Brenton's 1 p.m. memorial.

Brenton, 39, spent his early childhood in Poulsbo and Woodinville. During
his years at West Seattle High School, from which he graduated in 1988,
Brenton joined the Seattle Police Explorers.

He joined the U.S. Army after high school and was a veteran of the first
Gulf War. He told family members that one of the highlights of his life
was being at the Berlin Wall when it came down.

Brenton met his wife, Lisa, in Spokane, and after graduating from Spokane
Community College, he started his career in law enforcement. He worked in
Hoquiam and La Conner before joining the Seattle department, following in
his father's path.

"Being a police officer was all he wanted, it was his calling, and he
loved his job," his family said in a statement released through police.

At Brenton's Friday afternoon memorial, friends recalled him as a humble,
dedicated man who who wanted to be a police officer from the time he was
old enough to play cops and robbers.

Read more about his memorial here. Follow this link for a photo gallery of
the memorial, and this link for a gallery of the procession.

"The day I pinned his badge on him in the academy is probably the proudest
day that I've probably ever had," his father, retired Seattle Police
Detective Boyd Brenton told Q13 Fox reporter David Rose.

Brenton also said he would like to have five minutes with the man who
killed his 39-year-old son in cold blood.

Tim Brenton's survivors include his wife, Lisa, an 11-year-old daughter,
Kayleigh, and an 8-year-old son, Quinn.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Albany Times Union news research director Sarah Hinman Ryan and
Seattlepi.com reporter Vanessa Ho contributed to this report. Casey
McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or
caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow his Twitter feed at
twitter.com/mcnerthney.




Pneuma
--
Read the United States National Health Insurance Act
outline @ http://www.cprights.org/plan.php?plan=8
Total Estimated Cost: $1.8 Trillion/year
[ Auf dieses Posting antworten ]