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Vancouver police investigate shooting, possible road rage

Disturbance spans several blocks, includes subject being subdued by stun gun

By Craig Brown, Columbian Editor, and
Andy Matarrese, Columbian environment and transportation reporter
Published: September 18, 2015, 11:54am
2 Photos
Neals Lane is blocked off at Fourth Plain following an apparent road rage incident nearby. It will likely be closed for a while.
Neals Lane is blocked off at Fourth Plain following an apparent road rage incident nearby. It will likely be closed for a while. (Andy Matarrese) Photo Gallery

Vancouver police officers arrested two men Friday in connection with a shooting near East Fourth Plain Boulevard and Grand Boulevard that may have started as a case of road rage, and investigators were still putting together all the pieces of the rolling disturbance Friday evening.

The department said officers were first dispatched to the area at 11:22 a.m., where they located a victim who had several bullet holes in his vehicle.

A short time later, officers located a suspect vehicle on the 2200 block of Neals Lane, off Fourth Plain, and detained several people riding in the vehicle for questioning.

Responding officers had converged on the area en masse. Emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian indicated one of the subjects refused to cooperate with an officer’s commands.

Vancouver police Cpl. Duane Boynton said Friday night one person was subdued with a stun gun. An ambulance was summoned to attend to the shocked subject, who may have sustained a head injury.

At the scene, Lt. Greg Raquer said one man did fall and hit his head.

By Friday night, the police had arrested 20-year-old Manuel Villa-Rodriguez on suspicion of first-degree assault and drive-by shooting and 18-year-old Christian Martinez on suspicion of obstructing a police officer.

The police said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.

At least five people were detained for questioning that afternoon, Lt. Kathy McNicholas said around 3 p.m.

By Friday evening, a complete picture of what happened had yet to come together, Boynton said.

He said the parties’ dispute — whoever they were and whatever it was about — apparently started elsewhere, before police received word of gunfire at Fourth Plain and Grand.

“Investigators are still interviewing witnesses, victims, suspects,” Boynton said. “It’s a pretty big investigation with a lot of different scenes that need to be processed, and people.”

The disturbance appeared to have spanned several blocks around Fourth Plain.

According to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian, the incident reportedly began near Water Works Park at East Fourth Plain Boulevard and Fort Vancouver Way, when a man tried to break up a fight.

Then, the suspects reportedly chased a victim’s vehicle west along Fourth Plain.

Gary Bains, the owner at the Towne Pump convenience store and Texaco gas station about a block east on Neals Lane, said a group of men at the gas pumps did get into some kind of scuffle before leaving.

Neals Lane was closed to traffic turning from Fourth Plain for a few hours in the early afternoon. Officers were checking out several homes in the area in connection to the shooting.

At least one vehicle involved in the incident, a brown Chevy Tahoe, was towed.

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Columbian environment and transportation reporter