A man accused of shooting his 43-year-old son in a Camas duplex Thursday night made his first appearance Friday morning in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of second-degree domestic violence assault.
Judge Rich Melnick set bail for Thomas J. Reiter, 70, at $100,000 and appointed attorney Steven Rucker to represent him.
Arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 10.
Reiter allegedly shot his son, Thomas F. Reiter, 43, police said.
Thomas Reiter was listed in satisfactory condition at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday morning.
Thomas J. Reiter was arrested Thursday night by Camas police responding to reports of a disturbance with at least one shot fired about 7:30 p.m. When they arrived, they found the son on the porch of a neighbor’s house with an “obvious bleeding wound to his arm,” according to court documents.
The father was found at 805 N.W. Greeley St. in Camas. He had bloody injuries to his face and blood on his shirt and pants.
The father said he was drinking and smoking marijuana with friends in his apartment when his son came over and demanded money, according to the probable cause affidavit filed with the court. Reiter told him to leave, but the son returned later and was allegedly angry, yelling and demanding money. The father told police his son reentered the apartment, shoved him onto the floor and repeatedly punched him in the face.
Reiter told police that eventually he went to a table where he kept a .38-caliber special revolver and told his son to leave the apartment. The son then told his dad to “go ahead and shoot,” the affidavit said.
Three witnesses told slightly different stories but said the son came into the apartment, yelled and then punched his dad, police said.
Thomas F. Reiter told police at the hospital that he went to his dad’s apartment to get money. He said his dad made comments that belittled him in front of his dad’s friends and that his dad punched him first, the affidavit said.
Detective Carol Buck with the Camas Police Department said the case is still under investigation.
