Police relaunched a massive manhunt Monday for the suspect in the execution-style murder of four policemen after he evaded capture in a lengthy standoff at a a house where he was believed to have been hiding, dpa reported. Police said they had cornered Maurice Clemmons, 37, in the Seattle area house late Sunday, hours after he gunned down the officers as they were doing paperwork at a local coffee shop. But when paramilitary SWAT teams stormed the home early Monday after an 11- hour standoff they did not find the suspect, police said. Police slapped a 125,000-dollar reward for tips leading to Clemmons" arrest and vowed to capture, even though his trail appeared to be cold. "He could be anywhere," Pierce County Sheriff"s spokesman Ed Troyer said at a televised press briefing. "If he didn"t get a ride out of here, he could even be in this neighbourhood still." Clemmons, who had likely been shot in the leg during the coffee shop assault, was identified as a violent ex-convict who had a 95-year sentence commuted by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in 2000, when he was governor of Arkansas. Clemmons has an "extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft," the sheriff"s department said in a statement. He also was recently charged in Pierce County, Washington, in the assault of a police officer and rape of a child, according to the statement. He was freed from jail only last week on a 150,000 dollar bail. The suspect gunned down four police officers Sunday in Washington state after storming into the coffee shop where they were sitting and doing paperwork. The officers - three men and one woman - from the local police department in Lakeland, Washington, south of Seattle, were in a coffee shop described as frequented by police officers. Investigators believe two were shot without warning while seated. A third was shot standing up in reaction to the attack, and the fourth struggled with and wounded the gunman before also being shot. "This was an execution, no doubt," Troyer said. "This was a targeted attack." --SPA
