A car that was apparently involved in Saturday's police shooting shows damage after it crashed several blocks away. (Emily Gillespie/The Columbian)
The man shot by a Vancouver police officer he allegedly almost ran over in an attempt to flee was Dominic Tovar of Vancouver, the Washington Department of Corrections said Tuesday.
DOC spokesman Jeremy Barclay said Tovar, 23, was wanted for missing an appointment Dec. 9 at the Vancouver Community Corrections office. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he subsequently failed to report, and DOC was unable to locate him.
According to Clark County Superior Court records, Tovar was convicted in June 2015 of attempted possession of heroin. He was sentenced to a total of 60 days in the Clark County Jail and 12 months’ community custody. The sentence was followed by prison time handed down after he failed to complete drug abuse treatment. The program — known as a Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative — stemmed from a 2012 conviction for possession of heroin with the intent to deliver.
Barclay said Tovar was sent to prison in July 2015 and was released in March 2016, when his community custody began.
Tovar, who was shot during Saturday’s incident, was hospitalized for his wounds, according to Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp.
He was released from an area hospital Tuesday and booked into the Clark County Jail on the DOC warrant. He will likely appear this morning in Clark County Superior Court.
Tovar was booked on suspicion of first-degree assault, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, attempting to elude police and hit and run resulting in an injury.
Police said an off-duty DOC officer spotted Tovar shortly before 11:15 a.m. Saturday near a Walgreens store at 2521 Main St., and requested assistance from Vancouver police.
When officers contacted Tovar, he backed his car out of its parking spot, nearly hitting Vancouver police Officer Ken Suvada, who fired at the vehicle and leapt out of the way. The suspect sped away and hit another vehicle, which had two occupants, at East 16th Street and Broadway, before crashing into Not Too Shabby boutique, a business at the corner, according to police.
Tovar was apprehended near East 15th and C streets as he tried to run away.
The Vancouver Police Department hired Suvada, 45, in 2002. He previously worked at the Twin Falls, Idaho, County Sheriff’s Office. Suvada has worked in Vancouver’s traffic unit, as a school resource officer, in the training unit and then in the department administrative division before taking his current assignment as a West Precinct patrol officer.
Suvada is on paid leave, per department policy, while the Regional Major Crimes Team investigates the incident.
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