4 Police Officers Murdered in Coffee Shop

This morning someone entered a coffee shop outside Tacoma, WA and shot 4 cops who were sitting down working on computers before a shift. All died. No employees or patrons were harmed and not much else is known, even if there was more than one shooter.

CNN story

Jesus Christ! That's some cold-hearted stuff right there. It looks as if they were targeted because they were cops.

I hope this bag of shit puts up a struggle when they find him.

Top CNN story right now. I understand this just happened a few hours ago but I'm amped wanting to know what witnesses saw or heard. I mean, did this lunatic speak, threaten anybody else? He really just walked in, killed the targets, left, bing bang?

Really odd. Speculatively speaking, I mean, you don't ambush 4 armed and thoroughly trained officers if you don't know what you are doing. This most likely was pre-planned. My guess is, they may have met up quite frequently in this same location for a while which enabled them to become ambushed. I kind of want to see the layout of this coffee shop too. I'm not saying its their fault they were ambushed but if one was a police officer one would think to switch up their pre-shift public meeting spots. Very tragic indeed for all parties involved.

No shit, this person is talented. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out it's a former serviceman.

I'll say it, I also won't be surprised if we hear more than an inside job, that employees had something to do with it.

That's a possibility. I wonder how many shots were fired. I for one wouldn't want to be in a firefight within a coffee shop, it being so confined and all. That may give a fair indication how how good of a marksman the perp was. If it was up to me, for starters, I would start rounding up all parolees within a 5 mile radius of the coffee shop and lay into them for information.

From the CNN report, they said that the man took off on foot from the Forza Coffee Company. From what I can see on Google Maps and streets, there are probably three escape routes (the front, side street and back). I think he took a left out the door and went through the back because there is a apartment complex parking lot and you can park a car there without seeming too suspicious. There seems to be too much traffic on Bridgeport Way to have a car waiting.

Wasn't this the beginning of L.A. Confidential?

Uh, no. File this under what women wear when they go out to have fun. Police officers should always be cautious, and I feel that we can generally state that they are.

It's almost absurd to expect police officers to have to shuffle their routine because otherwise they might be making it too easy to ambush them. Police officers shouldn't, as a matter of course, have to worry about ambush, especially when they're off-duty.

Actually, it's not. Even non-essential personnel like me are required by the military to shuffle our routines to lower our profile, lest we become targets. It's not entirely unjustified to expect law enforcement to operate in a similar manner.

there's also the matter of 'what one should have to do' being completely distinct from 'the smart thing to do'.

What do fancy underpants have to do with it?

Most of the cops I know personally do it. They take different routes home from work, won't go in certain bars, have to have unlisted phone numbers. Hell more than a few of the guys I've known don't get their mail at home, and opt for a PO Box.

Anyone want to guess motive? I am thinking drug related killings.

So, what you're saying is that making themselves easy targets was the smart thing to do?

er, no. i'm actually saying the opposite of that.

That's the way I'm reading it. What's your example of "what one should have to do" in this case?

gah. i was basing my statement off of Toku666's posit that police officers shouldn't have to guard against being ambushed. my point was that even if they shouldn't have to, they (obviously) do have to.

More details are in. Apparently there is a chance that the shooter may have been shot on his way out during the gunfire.

I vote asshole failure with a gun.

And I, equally speculatively speaking, would guess that it's not that difficult at all. Especially if they're sitting around in a coffee shop looking at computers.

I see what you're saying.

-wrong thread-

Yeah, me too, dude.

I thought about it some more. I don't like it, but it's a "comes with the territory" consideration, obviously.

I still don't think they should have to do it, and I certainly don't think it's responsible to critique the professional paranoia of four men that were just gunned down in cold blood even if it's a very germane reason for their deaths.

But I wasn't being realistic before, and made a shitty analogy to boot.

This is usually how it goes, though. Nobody actually thinks that it's going to happen to them. I'm sure everyone would like to think otherwise, really. It's a dangerous job, and while complacency is an issue, it's not the cause.

Honestly, cops probably have more of a reason to be cautious. I agree, that is disturbing.