A Vancouver police officer was critically injured in a shooting during a traffic stop Monday, sending all available officers on a two-hour manhunt before the last of two suspects was detained.
A motorcycle officer with the Vancouver traffic unit pulled over a vehicle near Northeast 162nd Avenue and 34th Street at about 11:30 a.m. The vehicle was stolen, police said. After the officer did not respond to a dispatcher, a resident came on the radio and said the officer had been shot, Vancouver police Lt. Scott Creager said.
The officer suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was in critical condition Monday at a local hospital, Vancouver police Chief James McElvain said at a press conference Monday afternoon. A source said the officer’s ballistic vest helped saved his life.
Police caught one suspect within minutes of the shooting, McElvain said, but the second wasn’t immediately located. Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency launched an emergency community notification system 15 minutes after the shooting was reported, notifying residents within a half-mile radius of the scene to stay in their homes.
Law enforcement officers from around the county assisted with the manhunt, setting up a perimeter around the area. They searched for the second suspect by going house to house and taking police dogs through residential yards.
By about 1:30 p.m., police had caught the second suspect in the 14100 block of 36th Street.
On Thursday, Clark County Marine Patrol Deputy Kevin Gadaire helped retrieve the body of a Vancouver man, Pioneer Anastacio Kelulau, from Klineline Pond.
The body was the third one he’d pulled from local waterways in three days and the fourth drowning he’d responded to in five days.
“I have not seen this many drownings in such a short period of time,” the sheriff’s marine patrol veteran said Thursday afternoon.
Working alongside families such as that of Kelulau, he said, gives him a front-row seat to a family’s anguish when it comes to drownings.
“Being down here with this family, it’s horrendous,” he said. “The only good thing about this is the family has closure. One family is still waiting for that closure.”
That family belongs to Jay Jones, the 25-year-old Battle Ground man presumed to have drowned Saturday evening.
Though the incidents were separate, there were some commonalities. At least three of the four victims were not wearing life jackets. (Authorities can’t say yet whether Jones was wearing a life jacket because his body has not been recovered.)
“It’s tragic because it’s an accident and it’s preventable,” Gadaire said.
If congressional candidate Michael Delavar could craft the nation’s gun laws, people with criminal histories would not be prohibited from owning firearms.
“The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, to me, is fairly clear,” Delavar told The Columbian’s editorial board Wednesday.
Delavar’s position on gun laws stands in stark contrast to the other two people vying to represent the 3rd Congressional District, Democrat Bob Dingethal and incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas. And although Delavar said gun control issues are not a central platform in his campaign, the topic is particularly timely this week after an ex-con with a history of violence allegedly shot a Vancouver police officer seven times.
“Free men are free men,” said Delavar, who is running as a Republican. Once felons have paid their debt to society by serving time in prison, they should be able to once again bear arms. He said his position includes people convicted of all crimes, such as domestic abuse.
Democrat Dingethal called gun violence in the country a “national disgrace” and said it’s time to “start working on reasonable gun laws.”
“We have to quit letting the NRA (National Rifle Association) determine what we do for the safety of kids in schools,” Dingethal said.
Herrera Beutler said it’s about “striking a constitutional balance.”
“I think good common sense says it’s both constitutional and the right thing to do that we keep guns out of the hands of people who have mental health issues, as declared by a judge,” she said. But she also believes “we shouldn’t limit people unduly.”
In a wide-ranging interview, the candidates discussed their motivations and laid out their positions on some of the hottest topics of the day, from the Affordable Care Act to the large oil-by-rail transfer terminal proposed for the Port of Vancouver.
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The person elected to represent the 18th District in Olympia will be part of a group of lawmakers tasked with fulfilling the state Supreme Court’s mandate to adequately fund the Washington’s public school system.
In a meeting with The Columbian’s editorial board Thursday, the three candidates vying for the Position 1 House seat had different takes on how they would tackle the problem.
The incumbent, Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Vancouver, said raising taxes is not the answer.
“We keep going back to the same well and that well has dried up,” Vick said.
Vick’s solution is to take a look at unfunded mandates and reform the education system. After that, he said, it’s about making cuts. State lawmakers are responsible for funding education, infrastructure projects and public safety, he said, and anything “outside of that, quite frankly, has to be fair game.”
His Republican challenger, John Ley, who lives in Camas and is a captain for Delta Air Lines, said the answer is reallocating the money that is sent to the state’s public schools and make sure it’s being used more efficiently, landing in the classroom.
Vicks’ Democratic challenger, Mike Briggs of Washougal, said he believes the money could be raised through a combination of moves, including raising taxes. The state should take a hard look at current tax incentives on the books and consider increasing user fees.
“I’m a big fan of the user fee,” Briggs said. “When the public is going to use a service, you pay for that service. It’s the most equitable.”
Another potential player has been identified in the continuing saga of the Pearson Air Museum.
The Port of Vancouver confirmed Thursday that it’s been asked about what role it might play in the future of the conflict-courting air museum. But whether it’s a viable option is another question.
“We have been approached by different folks in the community who would like to see us be part of Pearson,” said Theresa Wagner, a spokeswoman for the port.
She characterized the discussions as preliminary, but added that such a move is a possibility because some ports have general aviation airports. The city owns Pearson Field with the exception of a portion of the runway, for which it has a long-term lease with the National Park Service.
Securing additional sources of revenue would allow the port to make investments in other community projects, Wagner said. However, a deal to land a potash export facility at the port, which would have generated significant revenue, was recently called off. And it’s unclear whether another major generator of cash — a proposal to build an oil-by-rail transfer terminal at the port — will receive approval from state regulators, Wagner said.
“We like the idea of doing good things, but it is challenging for us to consider taking it on,” she said of the Pearson conversations. “It takes resources, and it’s not something we do right now.”
Identity Clark County appears to be initiating many of the discussions.
John McKibbin, president of Identity Clark County, is actively hunting for a new entity to take the reins of the air museum. But he said it was too early to discuss what steps he, or others, have taken to secure local ownership of the museum.
