Poetic Justice for Slain Officer Brenton - SPD

[SirLancelot]

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/69420262.html

While preparing to return home yesterday from Officer Brenton's memorial service in Seattle, word started spreading quickly among those still at the memorial service that an officer-involved shooting had just taken place in a city just south of Seattle and that it involved a "person of interest" (upgraded later in the evening to the actual suspect) in Officer Brenton's cold-blooded murder.

As emotional and overwhelming as the procession and memorial service was yesterday, this news story helped bring a little bit of closure to the day. Not much closure, but enough to help the day end on somewhat of a positive note, considering the reason for the memorial service itself and the grief of Officer Brenton's surviving widow and two children.

R.I.P. Officer Brenton - and may your murderer receive what he deserves.

[DAL]

I don't know how reliable this source is, but the story is interesting.

Christopher Monfort, Suspect in the Murder of Officer Tim Brenton, Wanted to be a Cop

By Caleb Hannan in Crime & Punishment
Saturday, Nov. 7 2009 @ 10:44AM

​Thanks to the hard work of reporters at the Seattle Times and P-I, we now know a lot more about Christopher Monfort, the 41-year-old Tukwila man suspected of killing Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night. And the more we learn, the more Monfort lines up with the profile provided by Seattle police on Thursday: a man who both acts like, and admires, the police officer he gunned down.

The paper-trail left behind by Monfort suggests a man whose idealism may have soured over time into disillusionment. Rosemary Stevens rented a room to Monfort 18 years ago in Pasadena. The actress tells the P-I that while he was working as a waiter in a steakhouse, Monfort's dream was to wear a badge for the L.A.P.D.

Monfort's story picks up again in 2004, when he was studying in the administration of justice program at Highline Community College. Garry Wegner is the program's coordinator and Monfort's former adviser. The program is often used as a training ground for future cops, but Wegner says police work was no longer Monfort's goall.

Wegner says Monfort told him he "wanted to make a difference in society" so he suggested law school. Monfort earned his bachelors in Law, Societies and Justice at the University of Washington in March of 2008. Afterwards, he applied for a minority scholars program, a natural pre-cursor to graduate school, and listed Wegner as his inspiration.

"You've shaken me to my toes," Wegner told a Times reporter when told of his former proteges arrest.

While in the UW scholarship program, Monfort focused on the work of Paul Butler, a law professor at George Washington University. Butler is a proponent of a controversial tactic known as jury nullification, whereby a jury can ignore a judge's instructions and acquit defendants, especially black defendants convicted of a non-violent crime, no matter how strong the case against them.

"It is the moral responsibility of black jurors to emancipate some guilty black outlaws," Butler wrote in a 1995 Yale Law Journal article, adding: "My goal is the subversion of American criminal justice, at least as it now exists."

As the Times reports, Monfort, who is half-black, wrote in his project abstract that he wished to "illimunate and further" Butler's scholarship.

Wegner is the last person quoted to have spoken at length with Monfort. He says they touched base five or six months ago. Monfort was "driving truck" and volunteering his Friday's at a juvenile detention center.

According to a police source, Monfort was said to have been laid off recently from a job as a security guard or private investigator. He has no known felony history. But in the last two years, Monfort was cited for three traffic infractions, including driving without insurance on October 16th, roughly two weeks before the shooting.

On October 22nd, four police vehicles went up in flames at a maintenance yard near Qwest Field. Investigators later revealed that a note threatening police officers, a pipe bomb and anti-police-brutality fliers were found at the scene. Police are now saying Monfort is suspected of that arson as well.

Attempts to reach Monfort's mother Suzan have thus far been unsuccessful. But the Times did speak with Vicki Malone, her business partner in a Curves in Bethel, Alaska, who said that Suzan was on her way to Seattle to check on the condition of her only child.

Monfort was upgraded from critical to serious condition this morning at Harborview. He was shot in the head yesterday after pulling a gun on officers attempting to talk to him outside his Tukwila apartment. More information as it comes.

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/11/christopher_monfort_suspect_in.php