The Clark County Medical Examiner’s office has identified the homicide victim who was killed overnight Monday in an industrial area of Vancouver as 83-year-old Benjamin O. Lyons.
Lyons was a Vancouver resident, according to the medical examiner.
An autopsy found Lyons died of “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries,” the medical examiner’s office said in a media release.
The Vancouver Police Department responded at 12:16 a.m. Monday to a report of a man on the ground in the 2800 block of Southeast Columbia Way. The area, south of state Highway 14 near the site of the former Kaiser Shipyard, is home to several light industrial businesses.
Officers found Lyons, an on-duty security guard for a business in the area, dead from what was initially reported as homicidal violence.
Lyons worked for KnightHawk Protection, a private security firm, said owner Rusty Rice. He was making a routine patrol of the property in a vehicle Sunday night. Staff checked in with him at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, and then found his body about a half-hour later, Rice said.
Lyons did not have a firearm because his position didn’t require one, his boss said.
Rice said that Lyons was “young at heart and extremely active.”
“The first time I saw him I thought he was in his 60s,” Rice said. “He wanted to work and he did an excellent job. He was a great leader.”
KnightHawk has called in grief counselors for its employees.
Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said investigators have not identified a suspect.
Police also haven’t determined a motive for the killing, so Kapp suggested in an email “as always, good situational awareness and reporting suspicious circumstances is advised.”
Monday’s death is the second homicide investigation of 2018 for the police department. The first investigation involved a man accused of stabbing an acquaintance at an AM/PM convenience store on Northeast Andresen Road. The suspect has been charged with murder.
