Mounce, husband of victim, describes shooting, aftermath

Shooter found dead in Blandford Canyon; 1 victim critical: Emergency scenes throughout county after multiple connected shootings

Neighbors describe growing tension: Dispute between Mounces, Kendall dates to late 2012

8:22 a.m. Friday: 911 call made from Vancouver Fire Department Station 5 about a disturbance with weapons. Clark County Sheriff’s Office says Abigail Mounce was shot in her car near 63rd Street and Andresen Road.

8:32 a.m.: Walnut Grove Elementary goes into lockdown. Over the next hour, 12 more schools follow suit.

9:11 a.m.: Vancouver police do a premise check at the Clark County Courthouse.

9:45 a.m.: PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center locks down its emergency room, standard procedure when receiving an assault victim when the assailant’s whereabouts are unknown.

9:48 a.m.: Gunshots reported at Blandford Drive and MacArthur Boulevard.

9:51 a.m.: After a report of a gunman on state Highway 14, police request the highway be closed in both directions near Columbia Shores Boulevard and Lieser Road.

10:30 a.m.: The lockdown at PeaceHealth is expanded, limiting access to all entrances.

10:37 a.m.: Officers report over emergency radio that suspect John Kendall has been located and was unresponsive after police dogs were released in his location.

10:51 a.m.: Highway 14 is reopened. Report of a second gunman proves unfounded.

10:56 a.m.: Lockdown at PeaceHealth is lifted.

11 a.m.: Sheriff’s Office reports that Kendall is deceased.

11 a.m.: All affected schools lift lockdowns.

Erich Mounce noticed his neighbor waiting for him as he left his house Friday morning.

He watched in his rearview mirror as John Kendall’s silver Buick Regal tucked in behind his car.

Mounce wasn’t concerned.

“I was kind of looking for him, because I thought he was going to meet us at the courthouse and work out a deal,” Mounce said. “Because that’s what my attorney said he was going to try and do.”

But while Mounce was stopped at red light, near the intersection of Northeast 63rd Street and Andresen Road, Kendall pulled to the right of Mounce’s vehicle.

“Not exactly parallel, just a little farther up,” Mounce said.

And then, “pop, pop, pop.”

The passenger side window was shot out; the windshield shattered.

Mounce put his Toyota Camry in reverse to escape Kendall’s gunfire.

Then he looked to his right.

His wife, Abigail, was sitting in the passenger side seat, covered in blood.

“I heard Abigail say, ‘I can’t see,” Mounce said.

He put his car in drive and pressed on the gas.

“I really don’t know what I was doing. I was honking my horn, racing around cars, running red lights, trying to keep redialing 911 with my right hand,” Mounce said.

Finally, he connected with the dispatcher.

“Are you the car that was shot at?” Mounce remembers the dispatcher saying.

“Yeah,” he said “My wife was shot in the head. I’m on Andresen taking her to the hospital. Clear the roads.”

o o o

Erich and his wife, Abigail, moved to Meadowcharm subdivision in the Green Meadows neighborhood in 2012, in part because there were rules — the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions — guiding what was acceptable in the subdivision.

Not long after the Mounces moved in, Kendall came over to introduce himself.

Kendall, 59, was one of the first to move to the subdivision.

The relationship between neighbors, however, quickly soured.

Within a week, Mounce said, Kendall was outside hammering every night. It soon became clear he was building a shed not far from their new home. When the shed was finished, Mounce said Kendall affixed a large industrial-sized street light that lit up their home.

And that was only the beginning.

Mounce, 46, and Kendall have been in a lengthy legal dispute. The Mounces allege Kendall had violated subdivision restrictions by renting rooms in his six-bedroom room.

Once, while Mounce was outside changing the oil in his car, Kendall allegedly told him to drop his complaints or he would end up “six feet under.”

“I didn’t think he would follow through it,” Mounce said. “I thought he was trying to be intimidating. That seemed to be his personality.”

The Mounces put up security cameras.

o o o

Abigail Mounce almost always works on Halloween.

The 33-year-old works the graveyard shift at SEH America, where she met her husband of nearly 14 years, and takes classes online through Washington State University during the day.

On Friday, she and her husband had rare corresponding days off. Before heading to court, they went to Starbucks and Wal-Mart to buy Halloween decorations.

Abigail is on track to graduate college this winter; then the two were thinking they would start a family.

On Friday, she was in critical condition at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.

After leading cops on a manhunt, Kendall later died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Erich Mounce said Abigail’s eye was split in half and the right side of her face was severely damaged. She underwent a facial reconstruction surgery on Friday.

“She is a wonderful woman,” Erich Mounce said, “she didn’t deserve this.”