Police dog, power saw help capture Vancouver bank robbery suspect

Law enforcement officials say they got their man Friday when they found a bank robbery suspect hiding in a crawl space under a house in Vancouver.

The tricky part was getting him out.

Steven Eric Lewis Jennings, 35, was wanted in connection with a US Bank robbery earlier in the month, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, which was tipped to his presence in a house on Northeast Sandpiper Court in the Orchards area of Vancouver.

Members of the Vancouver Police Department’s Neighborhood Response Team, already in the area on an unrelated matter, surrounded the home and ordered Jennings to surrender, a CCSO bulletin said Saturday.

When Jennings refused to surrender, a Vancouver police K-9 unit brought in to help in the search determined that the man was likely hiding under the house in a tight crawl space, the bulletin said.

“The K-9 unit, his handler and two detectives went under the house and found some broken water pipes. The K-9 unit located Mr. Jennings at the furthest point away from the opening,” the bulletin said.

Detectives had to crawl on their bellies from one end of the house to the other to reach Jennings. Once they did, they found they couldn’t get him out the same way.

That brought in the Vancouver Fire Department, which used a power saw to cut through the floor to the crawl space near Jennings and the detectives. “All of them were able to safely crawl out of the hole,” the bulletin said.

Jennings was transported to a hospital for medical clearance before being booked into the Clark County Jail on suspicion of robbery the first degree, the bulletin said.