Police coffee shop killer is shot dead

Police today shot dead the man suspected of killing four officers as they sat in a coffee house.

Maurice Clemmons, who was identified shortly after the shootings in the US state of Washington, was shot early today.

He had been on the run since the murders on Sunday morning in a coffee shop in Parkland, a suburb south of Seattle.

Four police officers were killed as they caught up on paperwork before their shifts started.

Clemmons was standing in the street outside a block of flats in south Seattle when he was confronted in the early hours of today.

A police source said he challenged the officers and was shot at 2.40am.

He was wounded and was taken to a city medical centre where he died of his injuries.

Police believe Clemmons, 37, was wounded in the shootings when one officer shot back, and that friends and family gave him places to stay, medical aid and money.

A sister of Clemmons, who is thought to have treated his gunshot wound, was arrested today.

In 1989 Clemmons was given a 95-year sentence in Arkansas for several offences including bringing a gun into school.

But he was later given a pardon by Mike Huckerbee, who was then state governor. Court documents show that Clemmons was delusional and mentally unstable.

County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said: "We're going to be surprised if there is a motive worth mentioning."