Stabbing suspect may have been motivated by religious extremism
It happened at one of the busiest intersections in the county outside a business known around the world.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Monday, Vancouver police arrested Scott C. Fandrich, 54, of Ridgefield suspected of stabbing two people in the Starbucks coffee shop drive-thru at Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and Chkalov Drive.
He was arrested on two counts of first-degree assault. Police did not indicate where Fandrich lives.
One of the victims was treated and released, the other was still hospitalized, Vancouver police said Monday night. Neither of the victims was identified.
Several bystanders, patrons and employees at nearby businesses rushed to the first victim’s aid, following the altercation.
Another man, apparently trying to help the victim, was stabbed in the foot.
Marty, 43, who asked that his last name be withheld, helped at the scene. He was praying about the right to life on the other side of the strip mall with a group of about 10 people from Westminster Presbyterian Church when he heard people yelling that there was a fight. He saw a man, estimated to be in his 60s, lying on the ground between two drive-thru signs with multiple stab wounds. A man with a knife stood over the victim, then started to walk away. He was described as being in his 50s and wearing a camouflage jacket.
Marty told the man he couldn’t leave, but the man walked to a white Chrysler minivan parked in a handicapped parking spot behind the Starbucks at 11502 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. in Cascade Park. He had closed the knife, and had car keys and a cane in his hands.
“I was not going to let him flee,” Marty said.
He stepped in front of the driver’s door and the suspect raised his cane above his head as if to strike Marty. Marty pinned him against another vehicle and twisted the man’s hand to make him let go of the knife. After pulling him away from the car, others in the strip mall helped pin the man down until police arrived about two minutes later.
Officers wrapped police tape around the drive-thru intercom and the white minivan. They interviewed witnesses in the parking lot.
There was no information on what led to the fight, or whether the suspect and victim knew each other.
Customers looked out at the scene from inside the coffeehouse, at one of the busiest intersections in Vancouver. The coffeehouse was Vancouver’s second Starbucks and the first to include a drive-thru window, opening in 1994. It hosts community events, such as a monthly deaf coffee night.
