On the night of October 31, 2009, Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton, a 39-year-old nine-year department veteran and Gulf War Army veteran, was fatally shot in an ambush while seated in his patrol car in the Leschi neighborhood. He and his trainee partner, Britt Sweeney, had just completed a traffic stop when another vehicle pulled alongside and an occupant opened fire with a rifle, killing Brenton instantly. Sweeney, in the driver’s seat, sustained minor grazes, exited the vehicle and returned fire as the assailant fled.

A tip about a vehicle seen at the scene led investigators to an apartment complex in nearby Tukwila. On November 6, 2009, police confronted a 41-year-old man outside his apartment; he pulled a gun and was shot and seriously wounded before being taken into custody and later paralysed from the waist down. Evidence recovered linked the suspect to the rifle used in Brenton’s killing, to a note protesting police brutality found at a recent firebombing of police vehicles, and to DNA at both the firebombing and the murder scene. The suspect was charged with aggravated first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and arson.

Does anyone in the Seattle area remember unusual activity or a vehicle in Leschi on October 31, 2009, that might help fill gaps in the timeline?