Report of threats spurs a search

Area law enforcement converged Friday morning on Orchards Park in search of a man accused of threatening another man with a knife.

Clark County sheriff’s deputies, responding at 7:30 a.m. to 6503 N.E. 94th Ave. to investigate a brandishing report, spoke with a 35-year-old man who said that he was confronted by an acquaintance who claimed that he was owed money, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Fred Neiman.

The acquaintance, identified by the CCSO as Christopher Matthews, 43, allegedly made threatening motions with a knife and threatened to hurt the man, Neiman said.

When he was told that 911 had been called, Matthews ran south to Orchards Park, according to Neiman, and witnesses reported seeing a person matching his description running through the park.

Deputies, Washington State Patrol troopers and Vancouver police officers converged on the park, set up a containment and searched using a police dog, but they did not locate the suspect.

He was last seen wearing a camouflage jacket and black ball cap, according to Neiman.

During the search, authorities encountered a man who fit the brandisher’s description and ran away from deputies. He was captured and found to not be the brandisher. But the man, identified as Richard Bellone, 47, was arrested for suspicion of failure to comply and a Department of Corrections warrant.

Matthews is still wanted and Neiman asks that anyone who sees him call 911.