The man wanted in the fatal shooting of four police officers was shot and killed Tuesday in south Seattle, Washington, after he challenged police who approached him, authorities said.

The Seattle police department confirmed to the Pierce County sheriff’s office that Maurice Clemmons was killed in the shooting, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Troyer could not immediately say whether Clemmons was armed or whether he exchanged gunfire with police in the 2 a.m. confrontation. Troyer was headed to the scene and said authorities will have more information in a news conference set for later in the morning.

“The Seattle police department is the agency that shot and killed him after the incident occurred,” he said. “We had supplied information to them earlier on multiple occasions where the suspect could possibly be at, along with a bunch of other police agencies that were running multiple operations. And at this point we do have the suspect. He’s no longer out there.”

Monday night, investigators had rounded up several of Clemmons’ relatives and friends to keep them from helping him elude police.

Some of Clemmons’ family and friends had tried to help him seek treatment for a gunshot wound that he suffered during the Sunday attack. They also called in false leads to police to divert investigators, Troyer said.

The incident ended a two-day manhunt for Clemmons, 37, that began Sunday after an ambush-style killing of four police officers from Lakewood, about 40 miles south of Seattle.

The slain officers were identified as Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; Officer Ronald Owens, 37; Officer Tina Griswold, 40; and Officer Greg Richards, 42. All of them were parents and had been with the department since its inception.

Clemmons was an ex-convict with a long rap sheet in Washington and Arkansas, according to authorities and documents.

Witnesses say Clemmons was shot in the torso during the Sunday morning attack, and blood and gauze bandages were found in a truck linked to Clemmons, Troyer said.

Clemmons is thought to have slipped away from a home in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood Sunday night, before police surrounded the residence for about 12 hours. He was not found in the home when the investigators moved in Monday morning, Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said.

The night before the shootings, Clemmons had threatened to kill police officers, but witnesses did not report those threats until after the slayings, Troyer said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Clemmons was accused of child “abduction” and assaulting a police officer in May. He had been released on $150,000 bond five days before the shootings, according to court records.

After his arrest, Clemmons’ sister told police that he “had not been himself lately” and that his behavior was “unpredictable and erratic.”

“He had said that the Secret Service was coming to get him because he had written a letter to the president,” an affidavit quoted her as telling investigators.

In addition, neighbors had complained that he had been throwing rocks through their windows.

In 2000, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee commuted a 95-year prison sentence for Clemmons, according to documents from the Arkansas Department of Community Correction. He returned to prison in 2001 but was paroled in 2004.

“Should he be found responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington state,” Huckabee’s office said in a statement Sunday night.

(Source: CNN)