Six local law enforcement officers are on paid critical incident leave after a Friday afternoon standoff that fatally wounded fugitive Derral Kenneth “Kenny” Mosby.
Sgt. KC Kasberg, 38; Detective Tom Mitchum, 62; Deputy Erik Dunham, 31; Deputy Jon Shields, 41; and Deputy Anthony Spainhower, 38 — all with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office — were placed on paid leave. Battle Ground police Sgt. Jason Perdue, 38, also was placed on paid leave.
Mosby, 36, died Friday afternoon from his injuries following a standoff at his parents’ home in Ridgefield. He was wanted out of Lewis County in late February for robbery and drug possession, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn, and he was featured on the television show “Washington’s Most Wanted.”
Police came close to capturing Mosby on March 6, after they received a tip that he was at the Gee Creek Rest Area, just south of Ridgefield, but they came up empty-handed after an hours-long manhunt.
On Friday, officers with the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force searched a farm in Ridgefield, close to Mosby’s parents’ house. It appeared Mosby had been sleeping in a makeshift bed on a pile of hay inside of a barn, said Eric Wahlstrom, supervisory deputy U.S. Marshal.
Then, Wahlstrom said, task force members checked the house where Mosby’s parents lived, thinking it was unoccupied. They noticed an open back door and saw someone inside shut it. As they called in reinforcements, a bloody arm opened a window and tossed out a paper airplane.
Mosby didn’t respond when hostage negotiators with the sheriff’s office tried to talk with him over a loudspeaker, Wahlstrom said.
At one point, police threw smoke canisters into the house and sent in a SWAT robot to try to coax him out of the house. Around 4:30 p.m., Mosby came outside the house with a firearm and confronted law enforcement. Shots were exchanged and Mosby was fatally wounded.
Weeklong search
Wahlstrom said he doesn’t believe Mosby’s parents were helping their son or even knew Mosby was at the house. A restraining order filed in February by Mosby’s mother, Tomi Mosby, barred him from coming to their home in Ridgefield, according to Clark County Superior Court records. The restraining order expired Feb. 25, after neither party showed up for a scheduled court appearance, records show.
On March 6, police converged on the Gee Creek Rest Area along Interstate 5 southbound in search of Mosby. Mosby’s father called 911 that afternoon to report his son called him and said he was at the rest area with a gunshot wound in his leg.
A black Saturn believed to be associated with Mosby was found in the parking lot of the Milepost 12 rest area, and police tracked Mosby’s cellphone to the area, Finn said. Although police officers searched the thick woods south of the rest area with canine assistance for several hours, they couldn’t find him. Later that day, Mosby broke into a house near the rest area and stole a vehicle, according to the Linn County (Ore.) Sheriff’s Office. Mosby then used a pay phone near Salem, Ore., to call his family.
On Sunday, Albany, Ore., police found the stolen vehicle, but not Mosby, who had been spotted on a bicycle in Albany near the Linn County Fairgrounds. It’s unclear how he returned north to Ridgefield.
The Vancouver Police Department is leading the investigation into Friday’s shooting with assistance from the regional major crimes team. Mosby’s manner of death is being investigated by the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Family tragedies
Mosby was one of four children in his immediate family, according to Columbian archives. Two of his siblings died before he did.
On July 16, Mosby wrote a Facebook post honoring his 32-year-old sister, Lacy Mosby, who was found dead earlier that month in Salt Lake City, according to Clark County Court records.
“A person can never tell someone that you love them enough,” he wrote. “If the day should ever come that you are unable to do that anymore, you will realize you didn’t say it enough and want nothing more than to be able to tell them how much you love them one more time.”
Mosby’s brother, Chance Mosby, died of a methamphetamine overdose in 2008 at age 24.
