Investigators have released additional information about events leading to the fatal shooting at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School in Hazel Dell last week.
The man the Clark County Sheriff’s Office says killed his wife in the domestic violence homicide — Keland Hill, 38, of Vancouver — attempted to purchase a rifle from a Multnomah County, Ore., Walmart on Oct. 6 but was denied after a background check, according to the sheriff’s office.
Before he fatally shot his wife — Tiffany Hill, 35, of Vancouver — she reported on several occasions that he violated no-contact and restraining orders stemming from a September domestic violence incident.
The sheriff’s office timeline did not indicate how Keland Hill obtained the gun used in the Nov. 26 shooting that also left his wife’s mother with wounds that were not life-threatening.
Tiffany Hill reported on Sept. 11 that her husband attacked her as she attempted to call 911, according to the sheriff’s office. She suffered a concussion and whiplash after Hill locked her out of their bedroom, threw her against the wall and pushed her into the garage, according to court documents.
Keland Hill was arrested on suspicion of fourth-degree assault and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence. The charge was later upgraded to felony second-degree assault after investigators received medical information from the incident, the sheriff’s office said.
The day after the attack, Keland Hill was released from the Clark County Jail, and a domestic violence no-contact order was issued.
On Sept. 14, Tiffany Hill reported to the Vancouver Police Department that her husband was asking about coaching their child at a bowling alley and if she was planning to attend, deputies said. Later that week, she reported ignoring a FaceTime call from her husband, who claimed the call was an accident.
On Oct. 4, Tiffany Hill obtained a restraining order, seeking to bar her husband from their shared residence and from having any contact with her or their three children.
“If he had a gun and got angry and drunk enough, he would definitely use it against me,” she wrote, adding that she didn’t think he had a firearm.
After Keland Hill attempted to purchase the rifle two days later, the sheriff’s office forwarded charges of attempting to possess a firearm and violating a domestic violence no-contact order to the prosecuting attorney’s office.
On Oct. 10, Tiffany Hill again reported that her husband contacted her at restaurant on Northeast Highway 99, the sheriff’s office said. Responding deputies were unable to locate Keland Hill, who was believed to be living out of his car.
Keland Hill was arrested again Nov. 7 after his wife reported seeing him at several locations. Deputies poked around Tiffany Hill’s vehicle and found a black box, with a GPS tracker inside, affixed to the fuel tank.
Keland Hill was booked at the Clark County Jail on several charges related to events after the original domestic violence incident, including stalking. Clark County Superior Court Judge John Fairgrieve set bail at $75,000 during a first appearance hearing the next day.
On the day of the hearing, Tiffany Hill went to the Domestic Violence Prosecution Center to report receiving additional text messages from her husband. After an assessment, a Vancouver police detective classified her as being in extreme risk of being killed by Keland Hill.
In a motion a week after Keland Hill’s second arrest, Deputy Prosecutor Lauren Boyd requested that bail be set at $2 million. The motion stated that he had been arrested in Maryland and North Carolina for abusing his wife, but the cases had been dismissed.
“He had done this countless times,” Tiffany Hill wrote in a no-contact order petition. “He’s been arrested before for attempted murder against me in (North Carolina). He got me to drop the charges.”
Fairgrieve raised Hill’s bail to $250,000 at a Nov. 15 hearing but denied a motion for electronic monitoring of the defendant, according to court records. The court did, however, order “intensive conditions” to be set if Hill posted bail.
Hill posted bail Nov. 22, court records say. Hours before the shooting, he was back in court for a motion to approve commuting to work using a vehicle. Fairgrieve permitted Hill to travel to White Salmon and Hood River, Ore., for work purposes only.
On Nov. 26 around 3:20 p.m., Keland Hill shot Tiffany Hill and her mother while they were seated in the front seats of a parked minivan at the school parking lot, 2215 N.E. 104th St, according to the sheriff’s office. Three children inside the car were physically unhurt.
Following a brief police pursuit after the shooting, Keland Hill shot himself in the head at Padden Parkway and Andresen Road and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Tiffany Hill was a former Marine Corps sergeant and active member of the Sarah J. Anderson Parent Teacher Association who had three children. Her mother spoke Sunday during a candlelight vigil at Esther Short Park. The family declined to provide their names after the vigil.
“I want to ask, ‘Why?’ I want to cry out,” Hill’s mother said during an emotional speech. “That was my best friend. That was my princess.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Tiffany Hill’s family to help the children.
