The two people killed in a stabbing early Sunday morning have been positively identified and their families have been notified of their deaths.
The names of the homicide victims, 42-year-old Thomas West and 55-year-old James Olsen, were included in court records released Monday following the first appearance of the suspect in the double-homicide, Dustin Lee Zapel, 35.
However, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp told The Columbian on Monday that the families of those killed had not been notified of their deaths and their names were withheld from the news story.
The police agency announced Tuesday morning that the families of the victims had been notified. A third surviving victim was identified in court records as David Garner, 51.
All of the men reportedly lived at the Central Park Place Apartments, which is on the Portland VA Vancouver Medical Center campus and is a transitional housing program for people who are low-income, homeless or at risk of being homeless. It is managed and operated by the Vancouver Housing Authority.
Attempts by The Columbian to reach family and friends of West and Olsen were unsuccessful, but previously filed court documents offer a small amount of information into one of the homicide victims.
West has lived in the Vancouver area for years and has family in Clark County, according to documents filed in a 2003 theft case in Clark County Superior Court.
At that time, West said he was schizophrenic and was living at Elahan Place, a mental health facility in Vancouver’s Maple Tree neighborhood, according to court records.
Olsen did not have a criminal history in Washington.
Zapel appeared Monday morning in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
At about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Vancouver police responded to the apartment complex, 1900 Fort Vancouver Way, for a possible stabbing. The stabbing suspect, identified as Zapel, had left the scene before officers arrived.
Garner told police he heard what sounded like a “scuffle and growling sounds” coming from outside his bedroom window in the courtyard. He went to check on the noise, and as he approached the communal kitchen, he saw fellow resident Zapel in the kitchen holding a knife, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Superior Court.
Garner said that when he spoke to Zapel, he responded with something unintelligible. Zapel then started coming toward Garner with the knife, and the man went back into his room, the affidavit said.
Upon arriving at the scene, police found two men dead in the courtyard with cuts and puncture wounds to their bodies. Video surveillance from inside and outside the complex shows Zapel stabbing Olsen multiple times in the head, torso and stomach, court documents say. His body was found a short distance away from West’s body. Police said the attack appeared to be unprovoked, court records state.
Officers launched a manhunt that led to Zapel’s capture about seven hours after the slayings in the Five Corners area, near Northeast 94th Avenue and Northeast Covington Road.
In an interview with detectives, Zapel said he was lying in bed when he decided to kill people, according to the affidavit. He said he went outside, found West and stabbed him in the head and chest and bit him in the head. He then repeatedly stabbed “the other guy,” whose name he didn’t know, he said, in the stomach, court documents said.
Zapel said he came back inside the building and saw Garner, whom he lunged at, trying to stab him, court records state.
Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said that Zapel has had prior felony and misdemeanor cases dismissed due to competency issues. Zapel poses an extreme danger to the community, he said, and asked the judge to set his bail at $5 million.
Judge Bernard Veljacic set bail at $3 million. Zapel will be arraigned July 28.
