By Jamie Goldberg
Source oregonlive.com
Vancouver police officers shot and killed a man early Sunday morning after responding to reports of a disturbance with a weapon at a home in the Sky Ridge Estates mobile home park in the 13200 block of Northeast 59th Street.
A resident called 9-1-1 around 12:25 a.m. to report that a man they knew was armed with knives inside the house, police said. Officials said the resident and several other individuals, including two children, locked themselves inside their bedrooms.
The individuals, including the two children, were able to escape through windows after police arrived, according to officials. Police said they smelled something burning inside the home and found a man outside the house armed with a knife.
Police said that the officers initially deployed a less-lethal 40mm launcher, which fires foam-tipped projectiles, after the man confronted them with the knife, but they were unable to deescalate the situation. Police then shot and killed the man, who died after being transported to a nearby hospital, officials said.
Four Vancouver police officers were involved in the shooting and have been placed on critical incident leave, which is standard practice after law enforcement shootings.
Police have not identified the man who was shot and killed.
On Sunday afternoon, police tape still surrounded the crime scene, blocking off traffic to a section of the mobile home park that included at least three homes. A Clark County Sheriff’s Office truck was parked next to the police tape and a law enforcement officer was continuing to analyze the crime scene.
Nearby, Alma Garfias stood with her 16-year-old daughter, Cielo, and niece on the porch of their home, which was still surrounded by Christmas inflatables and decorations. The family recounted a harrowing night for themselves and other neighbors in the mobile home park.
Cielo Garfias said she was lying in bed after midnight watching YouTube videos and trying to fall asleep when she heard a woman shouting, followed by a string of loud pops.
A Ring Doorbell video provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive by Alma Garfias shows that around 12:43 a.m., or about 20 minutes after police said they were called to the scene, a female voice shouts, “Put it down.” Seconds later, more than 10 shots can be heard on the video.
Police have not said whether all four officers fired their guns or how many shots were fired, but investigators placed more than a dozen evidence tags Sunday on the asphalt outside the home where the shooting appears to have occurred.
Cielo Garfias recounted running into the living room of her home with her cousin and mother after hearing the shots.
“En el piso, no se levanten!” Alma Garfias shouted to the girls, which means in Spanish, “On the floor, don’t get up.”
Once it was clear the gunfire had stopped, the family sat on the couch, shaking, Cielo Garfias said. She took a few moments to take videos on her phone of what was happening outside her window, including of an ambulance taking away a man’s body.
She said her family didn’t sleep all night and were still shaken up Sunday morning.
“I was holding back tears,” she said. “It was just too much emotion.”
Another couple who live nearby in the mobile home park said a bullet hit their house and that an officer came early Sunday morning to pick it up from inside their bedroom closet. The couple asked not to be identified, worrying that law enforcement might be unhappy they provided information to a reporter.
“Scary, scary, scary,” the woman said of the experience, before walking down her porch steps to show an Oregonian/OregonLive reporter what appeared to be a small bullet hole on the side of her house closest to the street.
The couple said they had lived in the house for 18 years and had never seen or heard anything like what happened early Sunday morning.
“This is nice,” the woman said, pointing at the houses across the street. “All is nice.”
The shooting is being investigated by the Southwest Washington Independent Investigative Response Team, led by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
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