KING-TV Helo Tangles With Law Enforcement

LAKEWOOD, WASH.: The prosecutor’s office in Washington’s Pierce County is considering charges against KING-TV’s news chopper crew over allegedly interfering with the investigation of four murdered police officers, reports indicate. KIRO-TV, the local CBS affiliate.

“They’ve hampered the investigation three times today; they’ve slowed us down,” Sheriff’s Debuty Ed Troyer told reporters near the scene of the shooting. “If that helicopter shows up again, you’re all out of here.”

KING-TV News Director Mark Ginther told KIRO that the chopper pilot complied with FAA rules and moved the helo whenever investigators asked the station to have him do so. A seven-minute video clip on KING’s own Web site included only two helo shots; one of the coffee house where the officers were shot to death Sunday morning, and another of the house where the suspected shooter was thought to have been.

Police in the area continue to seek Maurice Clemmons, who previously was released from prison when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted his sentence.