Man who shot at a Tacoma Public Schools officer in parking lot arrested

A man who tried to shoot a Tacoma Public School Patrol Officer was arrested Friday morning, authorities report.

Clifford Lee Mahan, 40, fired a pistol into the patrol officer’s vehicle on July 18, according to a Tacoma Police Department news release. The shooting occurred in the parking lot of the Tacoma Public Schools Central Administration Building at the 600 block of South 8th Street.

The suspect approached the patrol officer’s vehicle in a silver SUV, then exited the passenger seat of the SUV with a handgun and pulled the trigger, according to the release. The bullet narrowly missed the patrol officer.

He then fled the scene in the SUV, The News Tribune previously reported.

Mahan was taken into custody around 9 a.m. by members of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Departments’ Special Weapons and Tactics Team and Special Investigations Unit and the South Sound Regional Gang Task Force. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail.

“It is believed that the motive behind the shooting was due to the School Patrol Officer prohibiting an illegal narcotics transaction between the occupants of the vehicle and people loitering on school property,” the release said.

Prosecutors gave these additional details about the shooting in charging documents:

Tacoma Police Department officers responded to 600 South 8th St. at about 1:48 p.m. on July 18. The patrol officer said he drove his marked patrol vehicle into the western parking lot of the school administration building after speaking with three people in the southern stairwell of the school administration building about their narcotics activity.

As he was driving through the lot, he saw a silver Honda CR-V slowly driving past him in the opposite direction, with only “12 inches or less of room between the two vehicles,” prosecutors learned from one report. The car stopped about 15 feet behind the officer’s patrol vehicle.

When the officer saw the man raise a pistol in his direction, he drove off but heard a gunshot. Police later determined that the bullet struck the vehicle in the rear right quarter panel.

The Honda CR-V was stolen out of Kirkland earlier that month with a person’s bank cards inside. They found the stolen car in the parking lot of the Oasis Motel on Tacoma Mall Boulevard July 19.

Detectives found ammunition, a gun holster and other items, including a blue bandana and a Coke can that detectives used to take DNA swabs and identify possible matches.

Detectives identified Mahan after interviewing the two individuals matched to the DNA samples. They knew Mahan but by different nicknames. Some called him “Shark” or “Crims,” detectives determined.

One said he was driving Mahan and others around on the day of the shooting when Mahan told him to follow the patrol officer, whom he said had taken something of theirs. The driver denied having any knowledge of what Mahan was about to do.

“After the security guard was parked and did not move for a while, (Mahan) directed him to drive past the car and park behind it so he ‘could handle it,’” detectives learned.

Prosecutors charged Mahan Dec. 10 in Pierce County Superior Court with assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court documents.