A Vancouver man is accused of shooting a woman in the arm with a pellet gun because she was searching through trash bins on his street for cans.
Tatsu Kirschenman, 26, appeared Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree assault. His bail was set at $15,000, and he is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 23, according to court documents.
Court records show prosecutors have since filed a charge of second-degree assault against Kirschenman. He is out of custody after posting bond.
Vancouver police responded at 9:33 p.m. Sunday to the 10900 block of Northeast 48th Street in east Vancouver for a reported assault with a weapon. Someone called 911 to report a woman came to their door saying she had been shot, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Police, along with the Vancouver Fire Department and AMR, arrived to find the woman bleeding from a wound on her right arm. She described the location where she’d been shot, before she was taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center for treatment, court records state.
Officers went to the house the woman described, which was in the 10700 block of Northeast 45th Street. There, they saw a large black bag next to a recycling bin across the street. Police said the woman told them she had been collecting cans. A man, later identified as Kirschenman, came outside when officers arrived, and police detained him, according to the affidavit.
During a police interview, Kirschenman told investigators he was upset over the homeless population coming into his neighborhood on trash pickup days. Kirschenman initially told officers he threw a palm-sized rock at someone who had been on his property but then crossed the street. He said he thought he struck the woman, according to court records. (Court records do no indicate if the woman is experiencing homelessness.)
Investigators later learned hospital staff discovered the woman was shot by a pellet gun, the affidavit states.
When officers asked Kirschenman about it, he then admitted to firing a pellet rifle at the woman, according to court records.
During a police interview with the woman, she said she thought she was shot with a real firearm. She told police after she was shot, she heard the man fire two more times as she ran away, court records state.
