Prosecutors consider charges against suspect in police shooting

As Seattle police continued to search the weapons-filled apartment of Christopher John Monfort, suspected of gunning down Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night, King County prosecutors Sunday are weighing whether to file a potential death-penalty charge against him.

Defense attorneys already are jockeying for assignment to his case, according to several attorneys. Monfort's family has declined to comment.

In the meantime, prosecutors are awaiting information from Seattle police and are considering filing an aggravated first-degree-murder charge by the middle of the week, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

"Our job is to review the case for any and all charges, including aggravated first-degree murder," Goodhew said Sunday. "There are only two penalties for aggravated first-degree murder: the death penalty or life in prison."

State law mandates that an aggravated first-degree-murder charge can be sought only under specific circumstances -- if the premeditated slaying happened during the commission of a rape, robbery, kidnapping or other high-level crime; if a suspect killed someone after escaping from prison; or if the person slain was a police officer.

If an aggravated murder charge is filed, the prosecutor's office would have 30 days from a suspect's arraignment to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Monfort, 41, was in serious condition at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center on Sunday, recovering from being shot by police Friday.

As Brenton's memorial service concluded at KeyArena on Friday afternoon, a group of detectives confronted Monfort in the parking lot outside his home, Pugel said. Monfort fled, turned and aimed a gun at police, authorities said. The weapon failed to fire, and the three detectives shot him.

Hours after he was shot, details surfaced about Monfort's private life, an incongruous existence filled with an apparent hatred of police yet jobs in fields related to law enforcement.

The 41-year-old man recently had worked as a security guard, yet he had written a manifesto lambasting police brutality. Monfort worked with youth, teaching them about the criminal-justice system, yet his apartment had such an overflow of firearms and potential explosives that police had to evacuate the complex twice since Friday night to guarantee the safety of other residents.

Investigators were first led to Monfort's Tukwila apartment because of a tip about his car, an early 1980s Datsun 210. Police had been searching for similar cars since one had been seen in the area just minutes before and after Brenton and his rookie partner, Officer Britt Sweeney, were ambushed.

The officers were parked in the Leschi neighborhood around 10 p.m. Oct. 31 when someone pulled up next to their patrol car and opened fire. Brenton was killed instantly and Sweeney suffered minor wounds. She was able to get out of the police car and fire at the vehicle, which backed up and sped away.

Pugel said a search of Monfort's apartment turned up bomb-making materials, improvised explosive devices and two rifles, including a "military-style assault rifle" similar to the type of weapon police believe was used to fire at Brenton, 39, and Sweeney, 33. Additional bomb-making materials were found inside a storage shed attached to his patio.

On Saturday, Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel called Monfort a "domestic terrorist."

Investigators have linked Monfort to a firebombing at a Seattle Police Department maintenance yard Oct. 22. A small American flag was left behind at the South Seattle facility and near Brenton and Sweeney's police cruiser — an apparent calling card from the suspect, investigators said.

Inside Monfort's apartment, detectives found news clippings about the maintenance-yard destruction. They also found a manifesto protesting police brutality and the videotaped jail-cell beating of a 15-year-old girl by a King County sheriff's deputy last year in SeaTac. A one-page note was found at the maintenance yard, lambasting the SeaTac beating and threatening police deaths if the violence didn't stop.

Seattle Times reporters Mike Carter and Steve Miletich contributed to this report.

Information from The Seattle Times archives is contained

in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com