A shooter and his accomplice have been sentenced to nearly three years each for an Aug. 16 road-rage shooting near Fort Vancouver High School.
Shooter Ted W. Washington III, 17, was sentenced April 5 by Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson to 32 months in prison for one count of drive-by shooting with a firearm enhancement. Kenneth G. Kirkland, 21, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Rich Melnick to 36 months for being an accomplice to the drive-by shooting. Both pleaded guilty. They were initially charged with first-degree assault. They received credit for time served.
Two other defendants, Fredrick R. Bolds, 17, and Tylor M. Myers, 19, also accused of being Washington’s accomplices, await trial May 6 and June 3, respectively.
All four defendants are from Vancouver.
The 17-year-olds’ cases were automatically remanded to adult court in August because they were accused of a violent offense.
The four were arrested Aug. 17 after victim Raymond Grendahl reported to police that a rear passenger of a white Ford Explorer fired five to eight shots at his car while he was driving. No one was hurt.
Grendahl said Washington shot at him after the Ford Explorer cut him off near the intersection of East 18th Street and Stapleton Road. Police said Grendahl and the four defendants exchanged words. Then, Grendahl or a passenger in his vehicle “threw or struck, possibly a glass bottle or bat, at the windshield of the Explorer and drove off,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
Grendahl denied damaging the other car and said something was thrown at him.
Grendahl said he drove off and thought the confrontation was over. But, he said, he later noticed the Ford Explorer following him in the same area. That’s when the alleged shooting occurred, according to court documents.
Grendahl called 911 and dispatchers traced the Ford Explorer’s license plate to an apartment at the Cedar Ridge Apartment Complex in the 4200 block of East 18th Street. Responding officers called Kirkland, Bolds and Myers out of the apartment. All three men said Washington was the shooter and had used a blue steel semiautomatic handgun, according to court documents. Washington later surrendered to police.
Paris Achen: 360-735-4551; http://twitter.com/Col_Courts; http://facebook.com/ColTrends; paris.achen@columbian.com.
