A man who was found fatally wounded in a crashed car May 16 in Orchards was identified Thursday as Ramon Magana-Izazaga, 27, of Vancouver, according to the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Magana-Izazaga died of a gunshot wound to the chest. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, meaning it resulted from another person’s deliberate action. The ruling does not make any judgments about criminal culpability.
A 15-year-old Vancouver boy was initially accused of shooting Magana-Izazaga, who apparently confronted him outside of his house about gang membership, according to court records.
Adolfo Cruz Torres appeared May 18 in Clark County Juvenile Court on suspicion of second-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and alteration of identifying marks on a firearm.
However, he was arraigned Thursday on only a charge of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. His trial is scheduled for July 20, court records show.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Smith said in an email Thursday that “the murder charge was technically not dropped, as it was never filed.” The homicide investigation is ongoing, she said. She declined to comment further.
Smith previously said there was another juvenile with Cruz Torres, but investigators did not yet know his involvement.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded at about 11:30 p.m. to Golden West Mobile Manor Mobile Home Park, 6816 N.E. 131st Ave., No. 105, for reports of a shooting. Callers reported hearing multiple gunshots and finding blood in a driveway, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Deputies found a vehicle on 131st Avenue, southeast of the mobile home park, that had crashed into a utility pole. The driver, later identified as Magana-Izazaga, was dead with at least one gunshot wound, court records state.
When deputies interviewed Cruz Torres, he “issued an unsolicited statement that he actually committed the shooting,” the affidavit states. It said he told deputies he was waiting for a friend when an unknown man stopped his car in front of Cruz Torres’ house and confronted him about gang membership.
Cruz Torres said the man approached him, and Cruz Torres pulled a firearm from his waistband and shot the man. He then allegedly took investigators to where he hid the gun, which was a Glock 23 with the serial number obliterated, under a neighbor’s porch, the affidavit states.
