On the night of October 31, 2009, Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton, a 39-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally shot in an ambush. Brenton, a nine-year veteran of the department and a U.S. Army veteran of the Gulf War, was sitting in his patrol car with his trainee partner, Britt Sweeney, in the Leschi neighborhood. The two officers had just completed a traffic stop and were parked, discussing the interaction, when another vehicle pulled up alongside them.
A man inside the car opened fire with a rifle, killing Brenton instantly. Sweeney, who was in the driver's seat, ducked and sustained minor injuries from bullet grazes. She was able to exit the vehicle and return fire as the assailant fled the scene.
The unprovoked attack on the officers sparked a massive manhunt for the killer. Investigators received a crucial tip about a vehicle matching the description of the one seen at the shooting. This led them to an apartment complex in the nearby city of Tukwila. On November 6, 2009, as a public memorial service for Officer Brenton was concluding, police confronted the suspect, 41-year-old Christopher Monfort, outside his apartment. When confronted, Monfort pulled a gun on the officers. He was shot and seriously wounded before being taken into custody. The shooting left Monfort paralyzed from the waist down.
The investigation revealed that Monfort's attack on the officers was part of a wider "one-man war" against the police. Evidence connected him to the firebombing of several police vehicles at a city maintenance facility just nine days before Brenton's murder. Investigators found a note at the firebombing scene protesting police brutality. Ballistics tests matched a rifle found in Monfort's apartment to the bullets used to kill Officer Brenton. DNA evidence also linked Monfort to both the firebombing and the murder scene.
Christopher Monfort was charged with aggravated first-degree murder for the death of Timothy Brenton, two counts of attempted murder for targeting Officer Sweeney and another officer during his arrest, and one count of arson. At his trial, his defense argued that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming he suffered from a delusional disorder and believed that killing police officers would end police brutality. However, the prosecution maintained that Monfort was a terrorist who knew his actions were wrong. In June 2015, a jury rejected his insanity defense and found him guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Monfort died in prison in January 2017.
