Vancouver man in court in alleged drive-by shooting

A Vancouver man appeared in Clark County Superior Court on Tuesday in connection with an alleged drive-by shooting that occurred Jan. 16 in Battle Ground.

Vladimar V. Altman, 18, is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 3 on a charge of felony drive-by shooting. Judge Suzan Clark held him in the Clark County Jail in lieu of $20,000 and appointed Vancouver attorney Jeff Staples to defend him.

Altman is accused of firing a gun into the air from the backseat window of a vehicle occupied by him and three friends. Altman said he fired the weapon into the air to scare away a group of “Americans” who were approaching the vehicle, according to court papers.

Altman, the driver, Alex Serov, and two other passengers, Edward Bilyk and Nikolay Astanin, had been involved in a “disturbance” with the other group earlier that day, Battle Ground police Officer Chris Crouch wrote in an affidavit.

Altman allegedly then threw the gun into a cluster of blackberry bushes, where Battle Ground police later recovered it.

Staples said based on the information he has seen so far, he expects the charge to be reduced to a misdemeanor unlawful discharge of a firearm.

“It seems to me the vehicle was not in motion when the shooting occurred,” Staples told the judge.

Altman has no known criminal history, said Deputy Prosecutor Rebecca Ward.