Shooting reported near Andresen Road; suspect still at large

A suspect was still at large Monday night after fleeing from the scene of a shooting and car crash that occurred earlier in the day near Northeast Andresen Road and 18th Street in Vancouver. Police believe the incident was a case of domestic violence.

Officers responded to a 911 call of shots fired at a vehicle near WinCo Foods at about 1:45 p.m. Investigators determined that someone in a small tan car fired multiple shots at a pickup on Northeast Andresen Road near 40th Street, said Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp. The vehicles continued south on Andresen Road and eventually collided in the parking lot near Sherwin-Williams. The crash pushed the car into a large utility pole in front of Napa Auto Parts, 1820 N.E. Andresen Road, Kapp said.

Two people in the car were injured in the crash and transported to a hospital. The car’s driver, who police identified as the alleged shooter, fled on foot and hadn’t been found by police as of press time.

The three people in the pickup were not injured.

“I don’t have confirmation that anyone’s been shot at this point,” Kapp said Monday.

It appears that some of the people in both vehicles knew each other, and that the incident involved domestic violence, she said.

Police responded to multiple areas, including Parr Lumber, which is farther west on Northeast 18th Street, and the 7-Eleven on Fourth Plain Boulevard near Stapleton Road, according to emergency radio traffic monitored by The Columbian. A K-9 unit searched the tan car. On-duty members of SWAT were called out to help, and searched a residential area off of Northeast 62nd Avenue near 33rd Circle.

Fort Vancouver High School went into lockdown when the incident was first reported, Kapp said. Witnesses at the high school reported seeing a Hispanic male in a hoodie cutting through the north side of the school’s property, according to emergency radio traffic. The lockdown was lifted at the end of the school day to let students go home, Kapp said. It was then reinstated and lifted just after 4 p.m., said Vancouver Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Nuzzo.

Police aren’t releasing the suspect’s name, though they believe they know who he is, Kapp said.