SEATTLE MANHUNT: Search continues for cop-killer suspect Maurice Clemmons POLICE: 'People are helping' suspect

UPDATE 12/2: CLEMMONS SHOT DEAD.

UPDATE 7:55 p.m. ET: Tacoma News-Tribune:

McDonald said investigators believe Clemmons, who was shot in the torso during the shooting, is getting help.
"It's apparent people are helping him," McDonald said. "Anyone helping him ... will be held accountable."

UPDATE 7:45 p.m. ET: According to the Tacoma News Tribune, police have found the Mazda belonging to Clemmons wife -- his ex-wife, they report -- and say it was not involved in Clemmons' escape. The News Tribune also reports that agents on the Canadian border have been told to keep an eye out for Clemmons.

Clemmons and his wife were married in 2004 by an Arkansas judge who wrote a letter in support of Clemmons' clemency appeal.

UPDATE 6:35 p.m. ET: More on the manhunt:

Washington state police are looking for the wife of the man suspected of killing four police officers near Seattle. They believe she may be headed to Arkansas, where her husband, Maurice Clemmons, had served prison time before former Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence in 2000.
Police are on the lookout for a green 1997 Mazda Millenia with Washington license plate 208-SSX, registered to Clemmons' wife, Nicole Cheryleen Smith, the Seattle Times reports.

UPDATE 6:20 p.m. ET: Michelle Malkin has a new post about the manhunt, linking an interview with one of the victims of Clemmons' 1989 crime spree:

Karen Hodge, one of Maurice Clemmon's robbery victims in Arkansas 20 years ago, said she was horrified by the Pierce County shootings.
"I'm flabbergasted," said Hodge, now 68, of Little Rock. "He should still be in prison."
Clemmons . . . was convicted in 1989 of aggravated robbery after he told Hodge he had a un, demanded that she give him her purse, and hit her in the face.
"He was a punk .... kid," recalled Hodge, who had just parked her car on a street.
"He said give me your purse, or I'm going to shoot you. I said, 'Hell no.' Boy, he knocked me half way across my car. That's about all I know about that little bastard."

Huckabee is still defending his indefensible decision to grant clemency to this vicious sociopath.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m. ET: The families of four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers will no doubt be furious to learn how easily Clemmons fooled Mike Huckabee:

Documents released this morning by the Arkansas Parole Board show police slaying suspect Maurice Clemmons was supposed to remain in prison there until at least 2015, but won his release by claiming he'd changed while behind bars.
Clemmons' appeal for clemency was granted in May 2000 by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, who commuted Clemmons sentence and made him immediately eligible for parole.
Clemmons wrote in an appeal to Huckabee that he'd been sent to prison after an extended crime spree that started in 1989 when he was a teenager — and that he was a different person now.
At the time of the crimes — which included aggravated robbery, firearms possession and burglary — Clemmons claimed he was 16 years old and had moved from Seattle to a high-crime neighborhood in Arkansas.
"I succumbed to the peer pressure and the need I had to be accepted by other youth in my new environment and fell in with the wrong crowd and thus began a seven (7) month crime spree which led me to prison," Clemmons wrote in his application to Huckabee.
Clemmons said he came from "a very good Christian family" and "was raised much better than my actions speak (I'm still ashamed to this day for the shame my stupid involvement in these crimes brought to my family name.)," he wrote.
"Where once stood a young (16) year old misguided fool, who's (sic) own life he was unable to rule. Now stands a 27 year old man, who has learned through 'the school of hard knocks' to appreciate and respect the rights of others. And who has in the midst of the harsh reality of prison life developed the necessary skills to stand along (sic) and not follow a multitude of do evil, as I did as a 16 year old child."

At First Things, Joe Carter writes about the limits of "compassion," and Doug Bandow at the American Spectator notes a 2007 report by ABC's Jake Tapper:

In fact, an Arkansas Leader study indicated that Huckabee helped free more prisoners from 1996 through 2004 than were freed in the six neighboring states -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas -- combined.

Kill Truck comments:

We just want Huck to accept his responsibility in this. We're waiting.

UPDATE 1:25 p.m.: In a press conference, Lakewood Police Chief Brett Farrar vows to "carry on," says: "In the face of adversity is where we triumph." There is a fund for the slain officers' families:

Lakewood Police Benevolent Fund
PO Box 99579
Lakewood, WA 98499

UPDATE 1:10 p.m. ET: Maurice Clemmons is now officially a fugitive suspect:

Troyer said warrants for first-degree murder have been issued against Clemmons in the killings of the officers from the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood who were gunned down in a coffee shop on Sunday morning at the start of their shifts.

That's the end of the "person of interest" language. BTW, Clemmons is believed to have been wounded in the abdomen, and may be dead by now.

PREVIOUSLY (11:52 a.m.): Associated Press:

The suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a coffee shop was not found Monday in the Seattle home where he was thought to have been holed up overnight, likely wounded from his bloody encounter with the officers.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

University of Washington police have alerted students to an unconfirmed report that the suspect in the Lakewood police shootings may have been sighted on or near the campus in Seattle.
Cmdr. Jerome Solomon says someone reported that Maurice Clemmons was seen getting off a bus about 7 a.m. Monday near the university's hospital. He says police are checking the area.

Michelle Malkin continues to update . . .

UPDATE 12:57 p.m. ET: Fox News reports "people who know Clemmons told investigators that he had been shot in the torso." The names of the slain officers have been released:

Those killed were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, and officers Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold, 40, and Gregory Richards, 42.

Dan Riehl is blogging the story. The Jawa Report and Gateway Pundit are also on the story.

More at Memeorandum. Will continue to update with latest developments.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Cops surround Seattle neighborhood
• 4 police officers ambushed