A 45-year-old man was shot and killed Tuesday evening outside a convenience store in Vancouver’s Rose Village neighborhood, dying in the front yard of the nearby home that his car crashed into. The man, who name was not released, is believed to be from Vancouver, police said.
Vancouver police swarmed the neighborhood at East 33rd and S streets after the shooting, about 5:45 p.m.
Minutes later, they took two “persons of interest” into custody after surrounding a home about four blocks east, at 3304 X Street.
Police said the victim, not yet identified, died at the scene despite being attended to by Vancouver Fire Department and American Medical Response ambulance crews.
He apparently was shot as he attempted to drive out of the parking lot of the S&S Mart, at the corner of East 33rd and S streets, witnesses reported.
His vehicle, a late-model sedan, continued about 100 feet south where it crashed into the front steps of a home at 1909 E. 33rd St.
Vancouver police Detective Pat Kennedy said the shooting is being investigated as a homicide.
Kennedy said the two people who were detained were identified, interviewed and released.
Late Tuesday night, Kennedy said no suspect had been identified.
Kennedy said that the shooting does not appear to be random, based on what witnesses told police. He added there is no indication it was gang related.
Police were completing digital mapping of the crime scene late Tuesday.
If the car struck the house, it appeared to do little damage, Kennedy said. He said police were not certain the man was in the car when shot, but the car did end up in the across-the-street yard.
Ronald Howard, 48, who lives across S Street from the market, clearly heard gunshots and rushed outside, he said.
“I heard four pops. I knew what it was,” Howard said. He and a friend approached the victim, finding the man lying outstretched on the grass outside the car, he said.
When the friend pulled back the man’s hoody, they saw he’d been shot in the back of the head, Howard said.
Howard, a four-year Rose Village resident, is familiar with its many crimes, but none so violent. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s really kinda creepy, happening this close to your house,” he said.
Several young residents just west of the crash scene also heard the shots and a loud thump from inside their living room.
Christian Vetter, 20, first thought “maybe some kids were playing with fireworks,” he said. But when several police cruisers arrived, the yearlong resident learned otherwise.
“This is the most intense thing that we’ve seen,” Vetter said. Chronic trouble around the store draws a steady police presence, he said. “There’s been a couple of fights, just violent stuff that happens here, for some reason,” he said.
Police cordoned off 33rd Street and the east end of the S&S Mart parking lot with safety tape, even as a large crowd gathered.
Police marked evidence in the driveway just east of the building, where the confrontation may have started. Shattered glass from the victim’s vehicle sprinkled the center of 33rd Street.
Over on X Street, Donald Young, 46, of Portland, said he saw and heard much commotion at the home earlier Tuesday as he worked on a friend’s fence.
“A lot of yelling going on, there was some big fight going on,” Young said.
Suddenly, about 6 p.m., gun-toting police surrounded the home and quickly apprehended one person of interest. They then coaxed a second outside after several minutes, warning him with a loudspeaker, Young said.
The small home had recently become very “active” with suspicious comings and goings, said Young and his friend, Kellie Wray, 47, of Vancouver.
“This is not typical. This is a pretty good neighborhood,” said Wray, a resident since 1995. “You don’t see stuff like this.”
