Man sentenced for shooting at Tacoma Public Schools patrol officer downtown
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- Clifford Lee Mahan pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for firing at a patrol officer.
- Judge sentenced Mahan to 20 years, the low end of the 20–26.5 year standard range.
- Investigators tied Mahan to the shooting via video and evidence found in a stolen car.
The man who missed a Tacoma Public Schools patrol officer when he shot the officer’s vehicle outside the school district’s administration building downtown was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said during the sentencing hearing in Pierce County Superior Court that in July 2024 the officer was patrolling the Central Administration Building and was called to move along some drug users. After that, one of those people got in a vehicle that Clifford Lee Mahan was a passenger in.
“Over the next several minutes they drove around and located [the officer] and his vehicle,” deputy prosecuting attorney Brian Best said in court. “Mr. Mahan exited the vehicle with a bandana covering his face and a firearm at his side.”
As Mahan approached the vehicle, the patrol officer began to drive away. Mahan fired a 9mm pistol, striking the rear right quarter panel of the patrol car, according to court documents.
“What’s troubling here is that this violence was directed toward a member of the community with no apparent motive,” Best said.
Best noted that Mahan had told a forensic psychological evaluator that at the time of the incident, he had been up for 15 days doing methamphetamine. A person who was in the car with Mahan at the time allegedly told detectives that Mahan said the officer had taken something of theirs.
Mahan, 42, pleaded guilty in March to first-degree assault for the July 18, 2024 shooting.
The patrol officer and members of Mahan’s family attended the sentencing hearing. The officer declined to comment on the sentencing after court adjourned.
Mahan’s criminal history includes 12 prior felony convictions for offenses committed between 2001 and 2020, according to court records. Some of those offenses were burglary, possession of stolen property, theft, attempting to elude pursuing police and malicious mischief.
The defendant’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Sarah Tofflemire, said Mahan understood the “extremely scary behavior” that happened here and the effect it had on the patrol officer.
“In this instance, no one was injured,” Tofflemire said. “There was one shot fired. It hit the back passenger wheel well of the vehicle approximately 13 inches off the ground. And everyone is very lucky that that is what occurred.”
Tofflemire asked for an 18-year prison sentence, arguing that Mahan’s diagnoses of ADHD, chronic depression and PTSD along with his “extremely difficult upbringing” affected his impulse control, emotional regulation and rational decision making.
“Mahan does acknowledge by pleading guilty to this, that this was a wrong that he committed, a thing he should not have done, and he takes responsibility for that,” Tofflemire said. “But these diagnoses make the process of making a decision and avoiding behavior more difficult than for your average person.”
Surveillance video captured the shooting, according to charging documents. Mahan fired at the patrol officer’s vehicle from about 15 feet away. Tacoma Police Department officers responded to the 600 block of South 8th Street at about 1:48 p.m. Officers found a 9mm shell casing and a bullet fragment in the parking lot.
Detectives identified Mahan as the shooter using evidence found in the Honda CR-V that transported him to and from the crime scene, according to charging documents.
The vehicle had been stolen out of Kirkland earlier that month, and when investigators located it in the parking lot of a motel on Tacoma Mall Boulevard, they found ammunition, a gun holster and other items, including a blue bandana and a Coke can that detectives used to take DNA swabs.
Those DNA samples led detectives to two men who knew Mahan by the nicknames “Shark” or “Crims,” according to charging documents. One said he had driven Mahan and others around on the day of the shooting when Mahan told him to follow the patrol officer.
Pro Tempore Judge Brian Tollefson sentenced Mahan, giving him a punishment at the low end of the standard sentencing range of 20 to 26.5 years. That was in line with prosecutors’ recommendation.
Tollefson told Mahan the thing that bothered him most was that a firearm was discharged, and that there was a potential for great bodily harm. He said he couldn’t dismiss that as something that justifies a sentence below the standard range.
Before his sentence was imposed, Mahan told Tollefson he wanted to apologize to the patrol officer and his family for his actions.
“I pray that one day you can forgive me for them actions, and I will be forever sorry for my actions on this day,” Mahan said. “And I hope that I can move on, and him and his family will be able to move on and be able to be at peace with this situation.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 2:32 PM.
