A Theory

Have you had your morning dose of baseless speculation? No? Well reader (and amateur gumshoe) Josh has a somewhat compelling theory about what may have (allegedly) pushed Christopher Monfort over the edge:

Christopher Monfort, the person shot by police earlier today and [is allegedly] suspected of the killing of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton on Halloween, had two traffic infractions on his state record, and that’s it. I did a quick lookup at the Washington Courts site, and found that those two infractions were from 9/14/2007 and 3/11/2009. What that site doesn’t show is that on 10/16/2009, Monfort was cited in Seattle for driving without insurance. I got that from the Municipal Court of Seattle’s site.

“Monfort may have been recently laid off from a job as a security guard or private investigator, a Seattle police source familiar with the investigation said.”

Aside from being a $550 fine, that charge on the 16th would have been his third inside just over two years. I don’t know where he worked or what the terms of his employment were, but I’ve seen job listings for which you couldn’t have three or more traffic violations within the past three years. If his job had such a requirement, that Seattle ticket would have been the reason he was laid off.

The court mailed him his hearing notice on the 28th. It probably would have reached him on the 30th or 31st. If he’d been stewing for a while, that could have set him off. If he’s not the guy, then that all doesn’t mean anything. But if he is, it sounds like as good an explanation as any for what happened.

Incidentally, the suspect profile the SPD released on the 5th said, “We do believe that although he shot a police officer, he may in fact admire them and even act like them.”

Fell free to shred/elaborate on Josh's theory in the comments. SPD is holding a press conference sometime today Hopefully they'll offer up some insight into this horrible tragedy.