A man suspected in a Vancouver burglary and officer-involved shooting last month is in custody at the Clark County Jail, following his arrest in two unrelated, alleged burglaries.
Craig D. Stewart, 41, made a first appearance Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree assault, second-degree burglary and attempting to elude. Judge John Fairgrieve set Stewart’s bail at $100,000, and an arraignment hearing is scheduled for Nov. 15, court records show.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies tied Stewart to a burglary — during which a Vancouver police officer fired his weapon — through gas station video surveillance, a stolen vehicle found near his home and seized clothing, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Officers were dispatched at 12:06 a.m. Oct. 13 to a commercial alarm at 6714 N.E. 18th St. Responding officers found evidence of a burglary, and a man was seen inside the building, according to police.
The sheriff’s office reported that the suspect stole a Range Rover from inside the building. A garage bay door opened, and the SUV accelerated out, “nearly striking one of the officers on scene,” the sheriff’s office said.
Vancouver police Cpl. Roger Evans fired his gun at the suspect, who evaded arrest. Evans said in an interview with detectives that the suspect “violently accelerated the stolen Range Rover toward his location, and (he) felt the suspect was purposefully targeting him,” the affidavit says.
Detectives released photos and video taken at an AM-PM Mini-Market of a man whom they believed committed the burglary on 18th Street.
On Nov. 1, Vancouver police arrested Stewart for allegedly committing two burglaries in the area of Northeast Andresen Road and Evergreen Boulevard. An officer noted that Stewart looked like the man in the AM-PM photos. Stewart has similar facial features and walks with a distinct sway captured on the store’s video, according to the affidavit.
Stewart provided his address — his parents’ home in the 4700 block of East Evergreen Boulevard — before being shown a photo of the burglary suspect and ending the interview with investigators, court records say.
His parents’ home is near where the stolen Range Rover was located Oct. 13. On the same day of his arrest, a deputy spoke with Stewart’s parents. His father told the deputy the man in the AM-PM photos looked like his son, according to the affidavit.
Investigators searched the home and located a jacket and black gloves with white paint on the fingers, both similar to what the man was wearing in the AM-PM video, according to the affidavit.
Additionally, the affidavit noted that the burglar entered the building on 18th Street by using a rock to break a window. Court records say Stewart was convicted of burglary in 2012, in which he threw a rock through glass to enter a building.
