Vancouver: 3 shootings in 2 days

o Preparing to survive workplace violence.

o Law enforcement scrambles resources to deal with caseload.

In two days, three separate shootings shook the city of Vancouver, leaving tragedy in their wake. A workplace shooting killed two middle-aged men; after an alleged drug deal gone awry, a young man was left dead in a field; and gunfire at a public health building injured an employee and triggered massive panic.

Murder-suicide

The violent week began with a fatal shooting at a paint distribution warehouse in west Vancouver’s industrial area late Monday morning. An employee at Benjamin Moore Paints came in on his day off and shot a manager at the business several times before shooting himself in the head.

Ryan Momeny, 45, of Camas, a logistics manager at the warehouse, was reported lying on the ground in front of another business in the complex. Robert R. Brown, 64, of Vancouver, a truck driver for the company, was found dead inside his 2001 Acura in the complex’s parking lot.

The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the double fatality a murder-suicide.

Body found

Less than 24 hours later, early Tuesday morning, police recovered a dead man’s body from a field along Northeast Vancouver Mall Drive. The body was later identified as Craig C. Moritz, 21, of Vancouver. According to a court affidavit, Moritz and his friend, Aaron Smith, went to a spot along the street to sell some marijuana to Shawn Fortner, 19, of Bend, Ore., and Jonathan Hensey, 21, of East Wenatchee. Fortner and Hensey picked up Moritz and Smith in a minivan and drove them a short distance to a parking lot in the same block.

In the parking lot, a masked man emerged from the back of the minivan and held Moritz and Smith at gunpoint while demanding they hand over their belongings, the affidavit says. Smith and Moritz were trying to run away when the masked man shot Moritz in the back and killed him, according to the affidavit.

Fortner and Hensey were arrested late Tuesday, while the suspected gunman, Zacheriah A. Douglas, 22, was arrested about 4 p.m. Wednesday in Forest Grove, Ore., on a parole violation. Douglas has not yet been extradited from the Washington County Jail to Clark County.

“This was a violent crime that occurred as a result of a drug deal gone bad,” said Clark County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu.

Workplace shooting

Tuesday afternoon, a former Veterans Affairs employee went into the Center for Community Health and shot her former supervisor before another employee wrestled the gun from her hand, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Deborah Lennon, 46, of Vancouver walked into Allen Bricker’s fourth-floor office about 4 p.m., pulled out a handgun and shot Bricker twice in the chest, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Veterans Affairs employee and former Marine Neil Burkhardt, 31, of Portland wrestled the gun from Lennon, detaining her until police arrived, court records said.

The building was thrown into lockdown as police carefully swept the building’s four floors and evacuated people.

Lennon appeared in Clark County Superior Court on Thursday. The former Veterans Affairs employee faces charges of first-degree attempted murder, stalking, cyberstalking and first-degree assault. Bricker, 45, sought a protection order against Lennon in January 2013, alleging that she was stalking him with daily emails, according to court documents.

He suffered gunshot wounds and remains hospitalized at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.