UPDATE: Suspect arrested after shot fired in Minnehaha-area home
Man arrested a mile away; held for alleged first-degree domestic violence assault
By John Branton, Paul Suarez
Published: February 9, 2012, 4:00pm
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Regional SWAT team members gather near a home on Northeast 40th Avenue in Vancouver Thursday.
A standoff that resulted after a report of an armed and barricaded subject at a Minnehaha-area home was resolved Thursday morning after the suspect was arrested more than a mile away.
Brad Kimball, 51, was arrested shortly before 9 a.m. walking near the intersection of 33rd and Y streets by a member of the Clark-Skamania Drug Task Force, who recognized him from his description, said Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman.
Thursday evening, Kimball was being held without bail in the Clark County Jail on suspicion of first-degree domestic-violence assault and first-degree assault, a jail officer said.
Sgt. Kevin Allais with the sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit said Kimball is alleged to have threatened his girlfriend or wife with a gun and fired the gun into the ground in her presence before deputies arrived. Kimball was scheduled to make a first appearance in court Friday morning.
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Kimball was arrested more than a mile from the scene of the original call, which was at his home at 4514 N.E. 40th Ave. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home at 3:21 a.m. after someone called 911 to report a disturbance with a weapon. Deputies responded and found out that a shot had been fired.
Several people were in the home at the time. No one was reported injured.
When deputies arrived, most of the people had left the scene, but deputies thought Kimball was armed and in the residence, an older ranch-style home, white with a red-colored roof, on the west side of a residential street.
Over the next several hours, deputies tried to contact him to talk him into surrendering. A SWAT team, a hostage negotiating team and other units were at the scene, which is in the middle of a long block that stretches from Northeast 44th to 49th streets.
It wasn’t clear how Kimball eluded deputies and fled the neighborhood. He was arrested south of Highway 500; his home is north of the busy highway.
Neiman said it’s likely Kimball had left the home before SWAT officers arrived because SWAT officers are trained to surround a scene from several vantages and watch for any sign of a suspect in such cases.
Neiman said deputies arrived to find a volatile, heated dispute and a shot fired. “It was definitely a good call to have SWAT involved.”
Neiman said a bang neighbors reported hearing possibly was a flash-bang distraction device.
“I’m just glad no one was hurt,” he added.
Northeast 40th Avenue was closed between 44th and 49th streets for hours as the incident unfolded. Truman Elementary School, which is about two blocks east of the incident scene, remained open.
Kris Sork, spokeswoman for Vancouver Public Schools, said police make recommendations for school closures when there is activity nearby. In this particular case, school wasn’t in lockdown, but a few buses ran slightly different routes.
“Police determined it was safe for that to happen,” Sork said.
Mick Hoffman, Vancouver schools director of safety, security and athletics and two security officers went to the school to assist.
Officers surrounded the school’s perimeter until 8:40 a.m., when deputies gave the all clear, Sork said.
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
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