Officers fired at wanted man during Vancouver search

Arriving officers determined the vehicle had been stolen and Reeves was inside. As they approached, the wanted man took off on foot into the neighborhood, police said.

“After a multi-hour search, which included members of the (Southwest) Washington Regional SWAT team, Reeves was located hiding in” a yard in the 2600 block of T Street in Vancouver and taken into custody, police said.

During the initial contact with Reeves, officers fired their weapons. Law enforcement were still investigating the incident Thursday due to the officer-involved shooting.

Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said two officers fired their weapons. Both have been placed on leave, which is standard for such an investigation.

No one was injured during the pursuit and search.

Randy Walksontop was standing on the sidewalk of T Street, opposite his sister’s house, when he watched a young man run by and then dart between two homes.

“Then all of the sudden, cops came flying in from all directions,” Walksontop said Thursday morning from the steps of his sister’s home.

The officers told Walksontop to give them some space and, if he could, go back inside. But he couldn’t get back across the street, so he was stuck watching the police standoff unfold from about 8:50 p.m. Wednesday to 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

SWAT officers rolled up the street in an armored vehicle. A helicopter or plane flew overhead. Police canines waited next to their handlers hiding around the corners of buildings. Drones with red lights buzzed in the air, said Walksontop and two neighbors, Angela Wright and Dionna J’orgensen.

According to the neighborhood witnesses, police commanded over a loudspeaker, “Brad, come out with your hands up.” It went quiet for some time, then Walksontop heard a handful of shots.

Wright lives in an apartment complex on T Street. She said she heard three to four shots. During the standoff, she peeked outside every 20 minutes or so; the situation didn’t change for hours.

“There were cops everywhere with their guns drawn,” she said. “I got scared because I knew it was something big.”

J’orgensen said she tried to leave her house to check on her family, who were in the garage and a camper, but officers “kept me on lockdown all night.”

Following the gunshots, officers rushed west behind some homes and demanded someone to get on the ground, the neighbors said. Wright later saw a man in the back of a patrol vehicle, resting his head against the window.

Several crimes alleged

Reeves is allegedly responsible for a string of high-visibility crimes in Vancouver over several days.

The first incident happened March 29. Reeves is accused of firing a gun at someone who was reporting a “suspicious circumstance” around Vancouver Lake Park, police said.

On Tuesday, Vancouver police tried to stop Reeves, who was driving a white Ford F-250 pickup truck, but he fled. At times he drove toward pursuing patrol vehicles trying to push him off the road, police said.

“Reeves continued to elude by ramming a patrol car multiple times before fleeing into Portland, driving in a reckless manner, disregarding the safety of others and at one point driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-5 during rush-hour traffic,” Vancouver police said.

The chase continued into Jantzen Beach, about which time officers ended their pursuit for safety concerns, Kapp said.

The third incident happened Wednesday. Reeves was believed to be driving another stolen truck, this time a blue Ford F-350, that’d been stolen earlier in the morning. A Vancouver traffic sergeant spotted the truck with Reeves behind the wheel, but Reeves once again drove off and escaped arrest.

Reeves has a long history with Clark County Superior Court. His first such case as a defendant happened back in April 2013, when he was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle. The charge was reduced to second-degree taking of a motor vehicle without permission, and Reeves was sentenced to three months in jail.

Reeves was charged most recently again in Superior Court on Oct. 23 in two separate cases, although one case involving heroin possession was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

In the other case, he was charged with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. Court records show that starting on Oct. 5, Reeves played cat and mouse for two weeks with police detectives. He was allegedly caught with two stolen vehicles, but he evaded arrest on three separate occasions.

Reeves was eventually arrested on a felony warrant on Oct. 19, according to a probable cause affidavit filed that same day. He paid a portion of $25,000 bail and was released. Four months later, he was charged with jumping bail and not showing up to his court hearings.