Police ID man arrested following Five Corners shooting
By Andy Matarrese, Columbian
environment and transportation reporter
Published: June 29, 2016, 3:14pm
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Todd Richard Marjama Jr., from a 2015 photo on his Facebook profile.
The man arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of fatally shooting his wife in their Five Corners home is in the Clark County Jail awaiting a charge of domestic violence murder in the first-degree, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Todd Richard Marjama Jr., 27, was arrested after police were called to a reported weapons disturbance around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at the couple’s home, 7312 N.E. 109th Ave., the sheriff’s office said. Deputies found Todd Marjama’s wife, Amanda Marjama, dead from an apparent gunshot wound, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court.
Officers spoke with family members, many of whom who live nearby, and they said the couple had been arguing since she learned he’d been having an affair, the affidavit said. They said they saw Todd Marjama waving around a handgun earlier Tuesday, as well.
“The family members were worried Todd was going to hurt someone,” an officer wrote in the affidavit.
Drama in driveway
The Marjamas lived at the residence with their three children — ages 2, 4 and 7 — court documents said, along with Amanda Marjama’s adult brother. The three children were home at the time of the shooting.
That night, Amanda Marjama’s brother heard what sounded like a gunshot from the master bedroom. The brother went to the master bedroom and found Todd Marjama sitting on the edge of a bed and holding a revolver, according to the affidavit.
Todd Marjama’s left hand appeared to be injured, and the brother, thinking Marjama had shot himself, locked the weapon in a gun safe.
Another relative entered the room, and they decided to take Todd Marjama to the hospital, the brother later told police. According to court records, Marjama and the brother were sitting in the brother’s pickup when the other relative came running from the home, yelling that Todd Marjama had shot Amanda Marjama.
Family members said they found Amanda Marjama dead in the master bedroom’s bathroom, according to the affidavit.
Todd Marjama fled the scene, the sheriff’s office said. Police caught up with him a few blocks away, near a home on Northeast 107th Avenue, shortly after. The sheriff’s office said Todd Marjama was arrested without further incident.
Another family member told officers that Todd Marjama had in the past made threats to kill his wife and children, and said the family tried to persuade Amanda Marjama to get a restraining order against him, court documents said.
Officers arrested Todd Marjama in Briana Steiner’s driveway.
YWCA offers aid in domestic violence
Washington saw 54 domestic violence homicides in 2015, according to the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Two of them were in Clark County.
YWCA Clark County runs the only domestic violence emergency shelter in the county, serving 46 adults and 73 children last year, Director of Programs Stephanie Barr said. It served more than 1,000 people for its walk-in services, and its hotline took 9,603 calls in 2015.
Barr said when it comes to the complexities of a domestic violence relationship, people are often scared to reach out because they don’t have everything in place yet.
“I think people are afraid of becoming homeless. They’re afraid of losing custody of their kids,” she said. “The first step is just having information and knowing what resources are out there.”
More information can be found at www.ywcaclarkcounty.org. The 24-hour hotline is free, confidential, accepts all genders and is empowerment-based, meaning callers will not be pushed in any one direction, Barr said. That number is 360-695-0501.
—Emily Gillespie
“We were sitting at home, doing yard work, then all of a sudden this guy comes running up our fence line yelling about he’s a veteran,” she said, adding he was nursing a wounded hand.
Todd Marjama’s social media accounts indicate he served in the Army for a few years and had deployed to Afghanistan.
Another man followed, screaming about how the first man killed someone, she said.
The first man ran into their driveway, and they told him to stay back so he wouldn’t spook their highly protective dog, she said. Steiner then called 911, and dispatchers told her to get in the house because officers believed Todd Marjama was armed.
“Out of the blue, I had sheriff’s officers coming from every direction,” she said.
She spoke with police and was working to get surveillance footage from her home’s cameras to investigators, she said.
It was a long night; she said police were out at her house until about 3 a.m. Wednesday.
“I’ve had quite a number of reporters at my house here today, because we have blood all over our driveway,” she said. “And rubberneckers, holy cow.”
After Todd Marjama was treated for injuries at a Portland hospital, he was booked into the Clark County Jail, the sheriff’s office said. The sheriff’s office did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, but said they were not life-threatening.
No one else was injured, the sheriff’s office said.
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