A Vancouver man was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for shooting his girlfriend’s estranged husband during a March confrontation at a Hazel Dell apartment complex.
Kenneth Michael Debruyn, 41, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to second-degree assault and attempt to elude, along with second-degree identity theft in another case. His plea to second-degree assault was an “in re Barr” plea, meaning he pleaded guilty to the lesser related charge he didn’t commit to avoid the risk of conviction on a greater offense; he was originally charged with attempted first-degree murder, among other charges.
Debruyn declined to make a statement during the hearing. A prosecutor said the shooting victim, Steven M. Limon, was in jail and also did not wish to speak.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded at about 1:35 a.m. March 6 to the Dell Terrace Apartments, 7422 N.E. Hazel Dell Ave., after multiple 911 callers reported hearing a gunshot and screams, according to a prior sheriff’s office statement. The shooter, later identified by authorities as Debruyn, fled in Traci Bojorquez’s car before deputies arrived.
First responders found Limon in the parking lot with a single gunshot wound to the left side of his torso. Limon underwent surgery to remove what appeared to be a 9 mm bullet lodged in his back, according to a probable cause affidavit.
At the hospital, Limon told investigators he and his wife, Bojorquez, had been separated on and off for the last year. He refused to identify his shooter or say what led to the shooting, other than calling it “some ‘Jerry Springer’ stuff,” court records state.
Bojorquez told investigators her new boyfriend had shot her estranged husband, who had been living in San Diego. A domestic violence report from November 2022 listed Bojorquez and Debruyn as being in a dating relationship, according to the affidavit.
Deputies had been called earlier that night, Bojorquez said, after Limon came to the apartment and threatened to die by suicide if she didn’t go with him to California, court records state.
Limon later returned, she said, and Debruyn shot him, the affidavit says.
A Vancouver police officer spotted Bojorquez’s Hyundai at about 2:20 a.m. in the North Image neighborhood of east Vancouver. The driver, identified as Debruyn, tried to elude police but crashed after a few blocks and then ran. The vehicle was recovered by police near Northeast 49th Street and 137th Avenue.
Video surveillance at the complex captured some of the confrontation.
