Suspect shot as city mourns slain officer

[bijou]

While a massive memorial service for slain Officer Timothy Brenton neared its finish at KeyArena on Friday afternoon, fellow officers with the Seattle Police Department shot a man they believe to be responsible for Brenton's death.

The shooting occurred in Tukwila around 3 p.m., shortly before the memorial service concluded.

The suspect, 41, was shot in the head and taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to Interim Seattle Police Chief John Diaz. The man was upgraded from critical to serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said this morning.

Sources say the man is Christopher John Monfort — a man who has lived in Alaska, California and Washington, compiling an enigmatic history, described by some as reserved, others as outgoing. Monfort's past includes employment as a security guard....

Hat tip to Ace of Spades for finding the story with the biography

Monfort received a bachelor's degree from the UW in March 2008, according to the university's degree-validation Web site. His major was in Law, Societies and Justice.

Last year, Monfort belonged to the McNair Scholars Program, part of the university's office of Minority Affairs and Diversity. The program aims to steep undergraduate students in sophisticated research, preparing them for graduate work.

Monfort provided this title for his project with the McNair program: "The Power of Citizenship Your Government Doesn't Want You to Know About: How to Change the Inequity of the Criminal Justice System Immediately, Through Active Citizen Nullification of Laws, As a Juror."

In an abstract of his project, Monfort said he planned to "illuminate and further" the scholarship of Paul Butler, a law professor at George Washington University. Butler is a proponent of jury nullification, a controversial principle whereby jurors feel free to disregard a judge's instructions and acquit a defendant no matter the strength of the evidence.

Butler has argued that such nullification may be particularly appropriate in cases where black defendants are charged with nonviolent crimes.

"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."...

read more here