FIVE CORNERS — Police shot and killed a woman who allegedly attacked two deputies with a hammer and a knife Sunday in a residential neighborhood, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting took place shortly before 5 p.m. in a backyard just south of Padden Parkway and east of Intestate 205 in the Five Corners area.
The woman, who did not live at the home where she was shot, was involved in a vehicle crash about 20 minutes before she died, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
At about 4:20 p.m., witnesses reported seeing a vehicle driving erratically near Northeast 76th Street and 94th Avenue. The vehicle veered off the road and crashed in a field, sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman said.
Witnesses said that the woman, who was the only person in the vehicle, walked away from the crash scene while yelling. Neiman said they couldn’t make out what she was saying.
At 4:42 p.m., a resident a few blocks north of the crash scene called 911 to report that a woman was trying to force her way inside of his home, but he managed to keep her out, the news release said. Deputies responded to the scene, in the 9600 block of Northeast 81st Street, and found the woman in a nearby backyard.
“She was armed with a hammer and a knife,” Neiman said.
She attacked the two deputies, who fired at her during the altercation, police said.
“They tried to treat her injuries,” Neiman said of the deputies, but “unfortunately, she died at the scene.”
Neither deputy was hurt during the confrontation, the news release said.
Lane Waleske, who has lived at his house on 81st Street for 13 years, said the woman had knocked on his front door and asked to come inside.
“She was rambling on” and her face was getting red, he said. “She was really getting freaked out.”
He refused to let the woman inside, and she headed to his neighbor’s home. “My neighbor said she came to his door and actually tried to force her way in,” Waleske said.
After the woman left his yard, Waleske reviewed his security camera. He said he caught the woman on video hopping over a fence across the street before knocking on his door. He added that his neighborhood is usually “really quiet.”
The officer-involved shooting is being investigated by the Vancouver Police Department. The sheriff’s office is following standard agency policy by placing the deputies involved in the shooting on paid leave during the investigation. Their names were not released Sunday.
Police were working to identify the woman, Neiman said.
