Ambush of a Cop

On Halloween night a light-colored, early 1980s Datsun 210 pulled alongside a parked Seattle police unit. Brit Sweeney, the trainee behind the wheel of the cop car, sensed danger. She ducked and shouted at her field training officer, Timothy Brenton. Shots rang out. Sweeney, grazed in the back, jumped from the car and began firing at the fleeing suspect vehicle. Brenton, a 10-year veteran, slumped on the passenger seat, killed instantly by multiple gunshot wounds.

A bugler playing "Taps" will usually trigger it, or a bagpiper's rendering of "Amazing Grace." But there's another moment in the memorial service of a slain police officer that guarantees I'll lose it.

As the service for Officer Tim Brenton was wrapping up at Key Arena last Friday, the amplified voice of a Seattle police radio dispatcher broke into the proceedings. Uniformed officers gathered from throughout North America froze, knowing what was to come.

"3 George 13..." The dispatcher paused. "3 George 13..." Then, "Officer Timothy Brenton. Gone but never forgotten."

Every police officer lives with the prospect of sudden violent death as an occupational hazard. Most keep the dreadful realization tucked far back in their minds, the better to function from day to day, shift to shift.

The slaying of a police officer raises difficult questions, none more crucial than whether it was preventable.

Do we hire the right people, police candidates with the strength and agility, the mental and emotional constitution necessary to protect the community, and themselves? Do we provide the best possible safety training during the academy, and reinforce it throughout our officers' careers? Do our cops understand the survival benefits of treating people with dignity and respect, of behaving with maturity and self-discipline? Do we set effective policies and procedures, procure the finest safety equipment, give our officers the backing they need in order to make it home at the end of each shift?

In almost every cop killing, there is something that could have been done differently, some small difference that might have saved a life: improved communication, better training, different tactics, updated equipment...

But Timothy Brenton's killing could not have been prevented, not unless he'd picked a line of work other than the one he'd aspired to all his life.

Brenton was murdered because he was a cop and for no other reason. And his killer, whatever his tortured motives, used as his means the one thing cops fear most, and condition themselves not to think about: ambush.

It's rare, a police killing that comes out of nowhere, an attack even the most well prepared cop can't see coming or defend against. But it does happen.

I think back to the 1983 slaying of San Diego police officer Kirk Johnson. Johnson had spotted a county sheriff's deputy standing next to a marked car in a local park. Kirk pulled up to say hi. The deputy responded by pulling a .357 magnum and firing numerous times, killing Johnson instantly. The county "cop" turned out to be a 16-year-old. With parents vacationing in Mexico, the kid had slipped into his stepfather's uniform and gunbelt, lifted the keys to the green-and-white, and gone joyriding. In the youngster's mind, as the SDPD officer approached, he had a choice: get in trouble with his stepfather, or kill a cop.

Consider this. Your job puts you in an eye-catching uniform, a conspicuously marked car, instantly recognizable as "law enforcement." This knowledge affects almost everything you do: where you choose to stop a car, where you park when arriving at the scene of a domestic violence 9-1-1 call, where you sit to do your paperwork. This state of mind helps explain why police officers tend to develop a high degree of social isolation and in-group solidarity. Unless you live with these realities, goes the argument, you can't really understand what it's like to be a cop.

The phenomenon also helps explain why some officers become so fixated on safety that they become a liability to themselves, and to the community.

From all accounts, this obsession does not describe Officer Tim Brenton.

Tim became a Seattle police officer a year after I'd left the department in 2000. He was, to those who knew him a gentle and decent man. A loving son, husband, father, brother and friend, he was quick to smile, crack a bad joke, pull the occasional prank on fellow officers. He was a good cop and, as a field trainer officer, a good teacher.

As I write this, a suspect in Brenton's slaying, Christopher John Monfort, is in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center, shot by detectives after he'd pointed a gun at them. Monfort is also suspected of torching police vehicles at a city maintenance yard nine days before the killing, and of leaving behind a threatening note. Explosive devices and at least two guns were found in his apartment. One of the firearms, a military-style assault rifle, is thought to be the murder weapon.

We may never know why the shooter did what he did.

What we do know is that Monfort never gave Timothy Brenton a chance. And that is why so many of Tim's brothers and sisters in law enforcement are in a unique emotional place. They understand better than anyone what it feels like to be singled out not because of who they are but for what they do for a living.

 

Follow Norm Stamper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CopsSayLegalize

Comments

[greenriverkate]

Well Norm, here we are again. A good officer ambushed and no one could do anything to stop it. My heart breaks for him and his family and the friends of this man.. Some outsiders are really trying to make excuses for the criminal that did this but there is no excuse or reason. I fear for officers like never before in this climate of hate and fear and blaming everyone but yourself for problems. May he rest in peace and the criminal get what he deserves.

[zaknick]

boo

[woodshoe]

seems to me this is another example of the way we are all taught to internalize the power structures in place and articulate our reactions with deep regard for those established hierarchies.. violence which flows down (from police officer to citizen) is exceedingly more commonplace and often treated as acceptable loss if not altogether invisible, whereas violence which flows UP the hierarchy is often fetishized as unthinkable, treated with parades and public woe.

is this due to their death while performing a public service? doubtful, as garbage workers have a higher on-the-job death rate and we almost never hear of it, much less do we see public funerals and parades to mark their on-the-job deaths.

police forces in this country have long been designed to protect wealth, property, and social stratification above human life, sympathy for their losses might be augmented if they occasionally trained their force power on wealthy sociopaths rather than the impoverished sociopaths they are currently limited to policing.
(interesting here to learn about the development of modern municipal police forces from pre-civil war 'slave patrols' ..it is a telling development which indicates most clearly what police forces are 'for'.)

i am not without sympathy for the life lost,.. i just want to resist the reflexive empathy for power maligned and the reflexive acceptance of violence done by those on behalf of power.

[Norm Stamper - Huffpost Blogger]

True, there are jobs more dangerous. Firefighting, construction, farming, fishing on the Bering Sea, and, as you point out, city sanitation work. But I'm talking violent death here--at the hands of others.

I've written extensively on police as protectors of wealth and the status quo, of bigotry and misconduct, including wrongful deaths. Critical issues, they help inform the conversation, flesh out the larger context. The institution is, and has been from the beginning, in need of major reform.

But I'm afraid "reflexive empathy" is another occupational hazard for people like me. I've known too many competent and courageous cops to reflexively equate the loss of a police officer with that of a garbage collector. Both jobs are vital to the health and safety of a community, both deserve of our gratitude. But only one requires its practitioners to face death for a living.

Latest developments in the investigation link Monfort’s DNA to key evidence in the case. Police have recovered a .223 rifle whose ballistics match the murder weapon; homemade bombs; a bandanna with an American flag motif found near Brenton and Sweeney's car; a small American flag found at the site of the earlier vehicle fires (booby-trapped with explosives timed to detonate just as police officers and firefighters arrived at the scene).

Oh, and the Datsun 210 had a bullet hole in it, struck by at least one of the student officer's shots at the fleeing suspect on Halloween night.

[woodshoe]

"I've written extensively on police as protectors of wealth and the status quo, of bigotry and misconduct, including wrongful deaths. Critical issues, they help inform the conversation, flesh out the larger context. The institution is, and has been from the beginning, in need of major reform."

i am familiar with your work, as chief of police during the wto in seattle 99, as the author of 'breaking rank' (i have read it, though some time ago), as well as your association with LEAP. i would be remiss to overlook those examinations.. and i certainly want to acknowledge your contributions to the conversation. i should have indicated that i was a 'fan'.

(actually as a distributor of online information about hierarchy, i once downloaded and reformatted a speech you gave (i think it was city club, san diego.. something like that).. for redistribution online.. at the time, it was downloaded quite a bit. i was pleased that it was.)

my familiarity with your contribution is precisely why i had to comment on this particular blog.. thank you for responding.
(cont)

[woodshoe]

(cont.)
so now, a little hair splitting;
"Both jobs are vital to the health and safety of a community, both deserve of our gratitude. But only one requires its practitioners to face death for a living."

it is demonstrably false to suggest "only one requires its practitioners to face death for a living." consider replacing "requires" with "ASKS".. to make this a more accurate statement. both jobs require that the civil servant face death, yet only police officers are 'celebrated' for facing death, and i still think this distinction has much more to do with their position in the hierarchy and preservation of the status quo.

i might be more sympathetic if officers were elected from within the communities they sought to police, and further if those police went on to elect their own commanders from within the popularly elected officers...
as it currently operates, as a series of 'top down' appointments and promotions, i don't think the institution can help but be despotic internal to the communities they find themselves in.

so i wrote in particular because i know you contemplate and scrutinize these kinds of relationships, between the powerful and the powerless, that you scrutinize.. if more police made these examinations routinely i think we would be getting somewhere.

[Mach8]

"Do our cops understand the survival benefits of treating people with dignity and respect, of behaving with maturity and self-discipline?"

No.

At least 5 minorities have been unjustly killed by police officers this year. And this doesn't include the instances of abuse that have been captured on film. The police are becoming an occupying force on our streets. As long as the so-called "decent" cops support their fraternity that condones the oppression and murder of citizens for being a different color or speaking a different language, incidents like this are likely to become more frequent.

[RandVictims]

Legislating against everything money interests don't like puts cops in the unfortunate position of taking the freedom away from many good people. Some people take that very personally.

Corrupt government is the enemy, not the cops, not the pot smokers.

[SusanStoHelit]

It's always sad when one of those who accepts a paycheck to risk their lives defending others, dies. It's such a brave choice, to take such a job, where you will run to the danger, where your job doesn't risk carpal tunnel or falling asleep in a deadly boring meeting - but actual death.

A good officer - he will be missed - and mourned especially by all those he helped - a large tally I'm sure.

[quadgemini]

Dear Norm:

I cried.
As a card-carrying liberal, I rarely stop to look at matters from such a perspective. Thank you for ensuring that I did.
Rest in peace, Officer Brenton. Your service to your community and to humanity is treasured.

Dan Ballard
Bothell, WA

[SusanStoHelit]

You don't? As a card carrying liberal - you should. I am, and I do. EVERY perspective is important to consider.

[Weirdo]

I was a cop for almost 15 years. Whenever I parked to take care of paperwork or eat or whatever, I would pick a big space, somewhere in the middle of a parking lot away from buildings, so I had room to maneuvre the car and no one could just appear out of nowhere. Sometimes people would pull up to ask directions or report something they'd seen. When I would see a car approaching, I would put my car in drive and leave one foot on the brake and the other over the gas pedal. I figured if the person pulled up and started shooting, I could punch the gas and move away quickly.

I have no larger point to make. It's just that when I hear these stories I get that old feeling in my gut. I know what it feels like to be bored out of my mind in a police car, nothing going on, then all of a sudden another officer lights up the radio with calls for help. There's nothing like the feeling of going from an emotional zero to one hundred in an instant and still have to keep your wits about you and get the job done.

I'm glad there are people out there right now who want to be in those patrol cars, watching out for the safety of my family and neighbors. I hope those cops in Seattle and the friends and family of the victim come through okay.

[keepervance]

Remembering Oscar Grant.

[S-]

Hearing about a law enforcement officer's life ending like this brings a unique sadness. Very sad.

[redbow40]

It's another shocking crime. The last few weeks America has been rocked. This is every bit as tragic as the Fort Hood shooting. Thanks to Seattle P.D. for keeping it's citizens safe. My prayers to the Officers family and the Seattle P.D.

[noralou]

Such a sad, sad day for all of us. Rest in peace, Officer Brenton.