Update: Suspect in killing of police officers has been shot and may be seriously wounded, Seattle Times reports. One of the police officers may have shot and wounded the suspect before he fled, a police spokesman told reporters in Seattle. Police have surrounded a house in Seattle and believe suspect Maurice Clemmons is on the property.

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SEATTLE — Police were seeking for questioning a 37-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record in connection to what has been described as the execution-style shooting of four Lakewood, Wash. police officers Sunday.

Maurice Clemmons, of Tacoma, who was recently released from jail, has an extensive criminal record in Washington and Arkansas, court records show. Clemmons is wanted in Arkansas and faces eight criminal charges in Washington state.

The four officers were killed at about 8:15 a.m. by a scruffy-looking man who walked into a coffee shop and opened fire. The officers — three men and one woman — were found dead by deputies who arrived at Forza Coffee, said Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer.

Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards were identified as the officers who were shot.

Troyer said the investigation into the shootings indicates that the gunman "flat-out executed" two of the officers. One officer then stood up, tried to go for the gunman and was shot, Troyer said.

The fourth officer was involved in some kind of struggle with the gunman.

"What happened in there wasn’t just a shooting. One of the officers managed to fight his way with the suspect, wrestled him out the door when he was shot and killed," Troyer said.

Before that fourth officer was killed, Troyer said, he apparently managed to fire at the shooter.

Troyer said if the gunman was shot, he could be travelling some distance to get care. Troyer suggested the man may try to visit a medical facility and claim he had suffered an accidental gunshot wound.

The officers who were shot made up one patrol unit, including a sergeant. Their families have been notified.

"It’s carnage out front everywhere," Troyer said, describing the front of the coffee shop. "It’s like a bad horror movie, it’s horrible."

The officers were in uniform, including bulletproof vests, and were working on their laptop computers as they prepared to start their day shifts, Troyer said.

"This was a targeted, selective ambush," Troyer said.

Troyer said there may have been a driver who helped the suspect get away, and police had a description of the possible driver.

Humberto Navarrete, 51, a financial manager who lives a block from the coffee shop, said he was in a nearby AM/PM minimart Sunday morning when two baristas from the coffee shop ran into the store.

The two young women, who were crying and upset, said a gunman had come into the coffee shop and stood silently at the counter, Navarrete said.

One of the women said she asked the man if she could help him, but he remained silent before opening his coat, grabbing a gun and turning and firing at the officers, Navarrete said.

Both baristas said they ran out through the back door.

They said they heard more shots as they ran to one of their cars and drove to the minimart, Navarrete said. As they left, they saw one of the officers wrestling with the gunman, Navarrete said.

One of the baristas phoned 911 and the other called her husband using Navarrete’s cellphone, Navarrete said.

The gunman was described as a black man in his 20s or 30s, between 5-feet-7 inches and 5-feet-10-inches. He was wearing a black coat over a grey hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans, Troyer said.

Police took a man into custody at a house nearby after he apparently called 911, claiming to be the shooter. But the man was not linked to the crime, Troyer said.

Dozens of officers were searching the area near the coffee shop. Troyer, carrying an assault rifle, told members of the media, "this is kind of a hot area, so you’re kind of on your own."

He urged the reporters not to roam off and assigned three officers to stand near the media.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said he had directed his office to help in the investigation, including the Homicide Investigation Tracking System and the unit’s criminal investigators. That system includes a central repository for detailed information on violent crimes occurring in Washington and Oregon.

Brad Carpenter, CEO of Forza Coffee, met with the two young baristas after they were interviewed by police and said they were "shaken up." The slain officers were "well-known to our staff," said Carpenter, a retired police officer.

"It’s supposed to be a safe haven for everybody," Carpenter said about the coffee shop.

Police seized a white pickup parked in a nearby parking lot and took it away on a flatbed truck.

The shootings come about a month after the killing of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton, who was targeted for being a police officer when he was gunned down while sitting in his patrol car the night of Oct. 31.

A $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest in the Lakewood officer’s deaths.

According to the department’s website, the Lakewood Police Department has 123 staff members including 120 commissioned officers.

In a statement, Gov. Chris Gregoire expressed condolences for the family and co-workers of the slain officers.

"I am shocked and horrified at the murder of four police officers this morning in Pierce County. Our police put their lives on the line every day, and tragedies like this remind us of the risks they continually take to keep our communities safe.”

Initial research suggests the shooting of four police officers in Lakewood ranks as the worst attack on law enforcement in state history.

Nationally, the worst incident involving law-enforcement casualties is the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Reports from that incident say 60 police officers were killed, though the circumstances differ. Officers and other emergency workers responding to the attacks died in the course of rescue attempts as opposed to direct confrontations with assailants.

In March of this year, four Oakland, Calif., police officers were fatally shot — the worst casualty count in that state since 1970, when four highway patrolmen were killed.

The RCMP extended its condolences Sunday to the Pierce County sheriff’s department.

“It is a tragedy,” said RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau. “We’ve also offered them resources, should they be required. Air services, police dog services or manpower. We have made our members aware of it, and cautioned them that until whoever is responsible for this tragedy is caught they should be very vigilant and careful."

Linteau said it was not yet known whether the perpetrator was headed north of the border.

“We are making inquiries to determine if that is a possibility, but at this point it is unknown.”

“This is a tragic reminder of what happened in Mayerthorpe,” said Linteau, referring to the ambush and murder of four RCMP officers in 2005, a slaughter that shocked the nation.

“It’s a tragic day when a police officer is murdered in cold blood,” said Const. Lindsey Houghton of the Vancouver Police Department.

“This type of thing transcends borders. We are all part of a greater fraternity once we put on our uniforms to uphold the law, protect people, property and the peace. To have something like this happen has a profound effect on us.”

— with files from the Vancouver Sun