Armed man kills himself after confrontation with police

An armed man confronted by police Thursday morning shot and killed himself in east Vancouver, according to police.

Someone called 911 at 10:24 a.m. after seeing a man with a gun in his waistband in the area west of Northeast 162nd Avenue near Southeast First Street. The police confronted the man, and a foot chase followed, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.

The chase ended near the intersection of Southeast 155th Avenue and Northeast Second Street, where officers ordered the man to drop his weapon multiple times.

“At that time, officers were engaging with the male, he refused to comply with commands to drop his weapon, which he had in his hands,” Kapp said.

Whether the man pointed the gun at or threatened the officers is not yet known, Kapp said, and the officers involved will be interviewed in the next few days.

Officers radioed for SWAT team and backup units to respond, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.

The man repeatedly refused to put down his weapon, police said, and then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life, Kapp said. No officers were injured in the incident.

Kapp said that police are investigating whether an officer fired a weapon, but said that police are confident the fatal shot came from the man’s own gun.

“The information that we have all points at that being the fact,” Kapp said. “It was a pretty fast-evolving situation.”

The regional major crimes team, led by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, is leading the investigation.

The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office will positively identify the man, whose name has not been released pending notification of next of kin. The agency also will determine the cause and manner of his death.

Jeannie McCoy was at her home just down the street when she heard the emergency sirens. She said her neighborhood is normally a nice, quiet place.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in the nine years I’ve lived here,” she said. “You hear about this stuff every day but you never think it’s going to happen in your neighborhood. …You just never know, it could have been in my yard. It’s scary.”

Anyone with more information about the incident is asked to call the Vancouver Police Department tip line at 360-487-7399.