A man is accused of shooting at a Vancouver police patrol vehicle as the officer investigated a complaint regarding gunshots at an apartment complex, court records say.
Joseph Andrew Ezetta, 48, of Vancouver appeared Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree assault and first-degree malicious mischief stemming from the early Sunday morning incident at the One Lake Place Apartments.
Vancouver police were called about 4 a.m. to 5264 N.E. 121st Ave., after multiple callers reported hearing gunshots in the apartment complex. The first officer to arrive drove his patrol vehicle along the south side of the complex and was about to turn toward the exit when he heard a number of gunshots nearby. The officer drove out of the complex to a safer location, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
While officers convened nearby, they saw a suspicious man leave the complex and begin walking toward them. They called out to the man, later identified as Ezetta, and ordered him to stop, but he ignored them. Officers then physically stopped Ezetta and found a 9 mm handgun on him, which was warm to the touch as if it had been recently fired, the affidavit says.
