By Fox News
Nov. 29, 2009 

Four police officers were shot dead in a targeted ambush at a Lakewood, Wash., state coffee house, a sheriff’s official said Sunday.

The attack occurred at Forza Coffee Co., east of McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Wash., about 35 miles south of Seattle.

Officers are now searching for one male suspect who opened fire in the shop before fleeing on foot, q13Fox.com reported. Police have not yet ruled out an accomplice.

Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said the four officers killed — three men and a woman from the Lakewood Police Department — were in uniform and catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts when they were attacked at 8:15 a.m.

They are the first Lakewood officers killed since the department was formed in 2004.

Investigators believe the officers were targeted, and it was not a robbery. Troyer would not release their names.

It wasn’t clear whether the officers even had time to draw their weapons to return fire, Troyer said.

“This was more of an execution. Walk in with the specific mindset to shoot police officers,” Troyer said.

There were two employees and a few other customers in the shop. No one else was injured. All are being interviewed by the Pierce County Sheriff’s investigators.

“It was just a flat out ambush,” Troyer said.

“The four of them are known by everybody here,” Troyer said. “We haven’t got any information as to why this happened.”

Roads were blocked around the attack. Dave Gabrielson, a clerk at Foot Mart about a block away from the coffee shop, said that the neighborhood was quiet when he opened the store at 8 a.m. local time. About 30 minutes later, “All of a sudden a million cops were zooming up and down the road,” Gabrielson said.

He said he saw officers bring a police dog into a nearby apartment complex.

Troyer tells Seattle’s KOMO-TV that the officers were hit near 116th Street and Steele Street on the east side of the Air Force base at about 8:30 a.m. local time.

McChord Base is not on lockdown, according to 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs Spokesman Bud McKay. The base is open and implementing its standard procedure of ID checks.

Local authorities are urging anyone with tips related to the suspects to call the Crime Tipline at (253) 591-5959. They are also offering a $10,000 reward for any information on the suspects.

Click here for more from q13Fox.com.

Source: Fox News

Editor’s Note: We at the Chronicle wish and pray for the family of the Officers who were killed in the line of duty. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com