Family in "shock and disbelief" over Monfort's arrest

The mother of Christopher John Monfort, charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the Oct. 31 shooting of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton, said the past six days have left her family "in shock and disbelief and incredible sadness."

Suzan Monfort told The Seattle Times in an e-mail Thursday that she and her son's father have been refused access to their 41-year-old son's hospital room at Harborview Medical Center.

Christopher Monfort was shot twice by police last Friday after authorities say that he tried to shoot at a detective who went to his apartment to investigate a car believe tied to Brenton's slaying.

One of two bullet wounds he suffered left him paralyzed from the waist down, his mother said.

On Thursday morning, King County Prosector Dan Satterberg held a news conference to announce charges against the Tukwila man — including the aggravated murder count that could result in the death penalty.

Satterberg also filed charges alleging Monfort tried to kill Brenton's rookie partner, Britt Sweeney, officers who responded to an Oct. 22 firebombing of several police vehicles at a Seattle city maintenance yard and detectives who confronted him at his apartment complex.

In her e-mail, Suzan Monfort questioned whether her son could get a fair trial in King County.

"We hope the criminal justice system will be fair and want to believe that it works, but given the biased media response it is hard for us to believe he will ever get a fair trial," she said in her e-mail.

In a separate statement, issued through her son's attorney, Julie Lawry of Associated Councel for the Accused, Monfort expressed her family's "sincere sympathies" for the families of Brenton and Sweeney

"Chris Monfort's family, like any other family in the same position, is heartbroken for all parties and is struggling to understand this tragedy," read the statement. "At the same time they love and stand by Chris and look forward to coming to a fuller understanding of recent events."

In the week since Monfort was hospitalized, his family has declined to speak publicly. Thursday's e-mail to The Times was the first time that Suzan Monfort has discussed her only child, his upbringing, his aspirations in life and the future that lies ahead for him.

Suzan Monfort, 65, said that she and her son are close. Though she lives in the rural eastern Alaska city of Bethel and he lives in Tukwila, they talked on the phone once a week and would travel to see each other often.

An only child, Monfort spent his early years in Indiana, where he lived until the sixth grade, his mother wrote. His family then moved to Alaska and Colorado, where he went to high school in Denver, she said.

"As a little boy it was Scouts, baseball, football, playing outside with friends at any chance," the mother wrote. "He loved putting model cars and airplanes together."

Monfort showed a particular interest in airplanes and collected books on them, his mother wrote.

He later learned to sky dive and, as an adult, added scuba diving, motorcycling and traveling to his interests, she said.

While in community college, Monfort began to paint, she wrote.

He "loved to paint to music and won a prize for one of his paintings" at school," she said. "He also is a lover of music all genres and taught himself guitar and would often give gifts of music to friends and family.

Monfort moved to the Seattle-area about five years ago to look at schools, with the goal of studying computer science, the mother wrote.

While attending Highline Community College, he "realized he was a very capable student" and his interest shifted to law-related classes under the guidance of an instructor who mentored him, she said.

Christopher Monfort later earned a criminal-justice degree from the University of Washington in 2008.

Monfort's father lives in California and came to visit him after he was shot, the mother said. But he also was denied the chance to see his son, she said.

She wrote that she and her son spoke weekly on Sunday nights and that he spoke regularly to all members of his family — cousins, aunts, uncles and a grandmother.

Her account of their contacts paints a different picture than that of others who worked with him in the past several years. While working as a volunteer at the King County juvenile detention center and a trucking job, he spoke rarely of his family and appeared to be a loner with self-doubts about his mixed black-and-white racial background, they said.

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

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com