Two dead in Vancouver workplace shooting

Two men died Monday in a workplace shooting at a paint distribution warehouse in Vancouver. A company employee reportedly shot a manager, and police say it appears he later turned the gun on himself.

The shooting was reported at 11:29 a.m. Monday at Benjamin Moore Paints, 1800 W. Fourth Plain Blvd. The business is located in the Westside Business Center, a multi-tenant building on the city’s industrial west side.

A caller to 911 reported that an employee of the business had come to work on his day off and shot his boss, according to emergency radio traffic monitored by The Columbian.

Ryan Momeny, 45, a logistics manager at the warehouse, was reported lying on the ground in front of another business in the complex. He died at the scene, according to Vancouver police.

After police arrived, they quickly located and surrounded a parked 2001 red Acura described as belonging to the shooter. It was in the parking lot of the complex near the intersection of 28th and Thompson streets. Police could see the Acura’s windows fogging, but got no response from the person inside the car, according to radio traffic.

After breaking out the Acura’s window, they approached and saw a man deceased inside the car. He was later identified by Vancouver police as Robert R. Brown, 64, a driver for the company.

Vancouver police said they don’t suspect any other shooter was involved.

Fruit Valley Elementary School, several blocks northwest of the scene, was placed on lock down until police surrounded the Acura.

Several rows of police tape were strung across the business complex’s parking lot while police investigated a potential motive.

Benjamin Moore Paints sits at the north end of the industrial complex and is next door to OnTrac, a regional parcel carrier, and GiftTree, a company that sends out gift baskets. A residential area is located west of the complex, just across the street. A BNSF railway line runs underneath Fourth Plain about one block east of the complex.

Momeny worked at Benjamin Moore Paints since 1985, and he was a manager at the company for the past 10 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company sells paint to hardware stores around Clark County. He lived in Camas with his wife, Michelle Archer Momeny, a microbiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Portland.

Momeny enjoyed jet skiing and other outdoor activities, according to his Facebook page. His latest online posts cheered on the Seattle Seahawks.

Brown, the apparent shooter, lived at Wildflower Apartments, 2404 S.E. 161st Court, a large complex in east Vancouver, according to emergency radio traffic.

Trauma counselors were called to the scene of the shooting Monday.

Sergey Sizmin, a truck driver for Benjamin Moore Paints, said he tried to pull into the warehouse at about noon but couldn’t because of the emergency vehicles. He said he’s worked for the company for seven years and has had no problems.

“I’m so shocked,” Sizmin said. “Everybody’s friendly. Everybody here works nicely together.”

A spokeswoman for Benjamin Moore Paints said Monday that the company is “deeply saddened” by news of the workplace shooting.

“We continue to gather details of what happened and are working with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation,” Kimberlee Bradshaw, of Benjamin Moore Paints, said in a statement.

Metro editor Craig Brown and web producer Paul Suarez contributed to this report.