Cop Killer update

Our resident murderer of constables has been officially charged

“This case is unique in that Monfort deliberately planned to confront police and kill as many officers as he could,” King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg said. “He was planning to make a final armed stand should he be discovered.”

Satterberg charged Monfort, 41, with aggravated first-degree murder in the death of Officer Timothy Brenton as Brenton sat in his cruiser discussing a traffic stop with a trainee named Britt Sweeney, who was grazed by a bullet.

The crime is punishable by life without release or execution. Satterberg has 30 days from Monfort’s arraignment to decide whether to seek the death penalty, but such decisions are typically delayed to give defense attorneys more time to prepare.

Monfort was charged with one count of arson and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. The latter charges stem from the wounding of Sweeney, an alleged attempt to kill officers during the arson nine days earlier, and attempts to shoot police who approached him outside his apartment in suburban Tukwila last week.

Monfort ran from the sergeant and two other homicide detectives, then produced a handgun, which clicked but didn’t fire when he pulled the trigger, Satterberg said. The gun was loaded, but Monfort had neglected to put a round in the chamber, Satterberg said.

“This oversight saved the life of the police officer, who was only a few feet away,” he said.

Gunnie translation: Thankfully, this guy was incompetent enough to not know which way the cylinder rotates.

His defense should prove quite interesting. It seems as though his plan was to not live through his capture.

Inside Monfort’s apartment, police said they found a terrifying arsenal: three rifles, including the one used to kill Brenton, and a pistol-grip shotgun, as well as several bombs consisting of propane bottles wrapped with duct tape, nails protruding. Some had very short fuses, indicating Monfort could light them and throw them at police, and another had a fuse sitting on the heating element of his kitchen stove, authorities said.

Stacks of automobile tires in the apartment could have provided a bunker in a shootout.

One does have to wonder exactly what kind of neighbors Monfort if they didn’t report him to property management after seeing him haul up enough tires to build barricades. I know the neighborhood the complex he lived in, and it is on the “rougher” side of homely, and also that he had a reputaiton as an “artist”, but really?

More when it hits the wires.