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Here are a few of the stories that generated a lot of reader interest this week.
Man surrenders after 9.5-hour standoff with SWAT team
An armed man barricaded himself in his west side Vancouver house for 9 1/2 hours on Friday before surrendering to SWAT officers shortly before 10 p.m.
The incident occurred at 5330 N.W. Esther St., a single-family house in the Northwest neighborhood. Vancouver police and the interagency SWAT team went to the house, where a man armed with a rifle was reportedly distraught. He is believed to have pointed a firearm at firefighters, said Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.
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Wounded Vancouver officer recounts gunfight
At a mostly bare desk in an office with mostly bare walls, Dustin Goudschaal recounted the traffic stop that nearly ended his life.
“I make it about to the bed of the truck and all I see is a head turned and a gun come out, and I see the muzzle flash,” he said. “Then I start feeling pain and burning.”
Goudschaal, a 33-year-old officer with the Vancouver Police Department, returned to modified duty earlier this month, working two days a week as a detective in the Arthur D. Curtis Children’s Justice Center. He sat down with The Columbian on Tuesday in his first interview since the driver of a pickup truck, James Sapp, opened fire and shot Goudschaal seven times nearly nine months ago.
The memories of June 30, 2014 are clear for Goudschaal, who was conscious and alert throughout the entire ordeal.
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Grass now greener for military family
Mandy Hilkey got a pleasant surprise when she called a Vancouver landscaping company to give her an estimate on some yardwork.
“I was asking ‘How much is it going to cost?’ and ‘Could it be done before he comes home?’ ” she said.
“He” is Hilkey’s husband, Nathan, a staff sergeant with the Army National Guard. She found out recently that he is expected to return from Afghanistan, his fourth tour overseas, this weekend.
But when she called a customer service representative at GRO Outdoor Living to ask about the price, “he kept avoiding my question,” she said. “He said something along the lines of … ‘We’re going to take care of all of this for free.’ “
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Vancouver yacht builder loses control of its assets
A Clark County Superior Court judge has appointed a receiver to assume control of the assets of Christensen Shipyards, a move that ultimately could lead to liquidation of the financially troubled yacht-building company.
Judge Gregory Gonzales has chosen Miles Stover to take responsibility for the Vancouver company’s property, including the authority to “market, sell, operate, protect, deliver and liquidate the property, the business of Christensen and/or any portion of such property or business,” according to Gonzales’ March 20 ruling.
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Apparently suicidal man closes northbound I-5
All northbound lanes of Interstate 5 were closed to traffic from Portland to Vancouver for about 90 minutes Wednesday afternoon while police talked to an apparently suicidal man armed with a butcher knife.
The man held the large knife to his stomach as he talked on a phone while standing on the sidewalk of the northbound Interstate 5 Bridge span.
The situation ended peacefully when the man walked to the south end of the bridge and surrendered to Portland police. His name was not released.
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Former Vancouver man’s online company has roofing jobs covered
Josh Davis is showing that he’s found a way to reduce the cost of a new roof installation by about 30 percent without sacrificing quality.
Now all he has to do is convince homeowners that his lower-cost option, made possible by shrewd use of new technologies that reduce overhead, isn’t too good to be true.
Former Vancouver resident Davis is founder of Viirt, which he describes as an online roofing broker. The company manages a roofing job from start to finish, providing a homeowner with an estimate based on a satellite view of a home and then brokering with an independent roofing contractor. Viirt collects full payment in advance and holds it until the work is done, eliminating collection costs and assuring that the customer is satisfied before the contractor is paid. Viirt’s handling of the many details surrounding a roofing job allows contractors to focus simply on getting the job done.
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