A 22-year-old Vancouver man who reportedly prompted a lockdown at Clark College last week made an initial appearance Tuesday morning in Clark County Superior Court.
Damian Daniel Rodriguez wore a suicide-prevention smock — given to inmates who may try to harm themselves with standard jail clothing — and did not speak during the hearing. He shook his head yes and no in response to routine questions from Judge Suzan Clark.
Clark noted that Rodriguez had not cooperated with the interview process that’s required, in part, to determine if a defendant is eligible for representation at the public’s expense. But Clark appointed a defense attorney on Rodriguez’s behalf.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Anna Klein requested and was granted a bail amount of $75,000, arguing Rodriguez has nine prior criminal cases that included charges of escape, false statements to authorities and drug possession.
Klein said the incident at the college Friday alarmed responding officers and students on campus.
Clark College briefly went into an emergency lockdown Friday afternoon after Rodriguez called 911 to report that he was armed and had killed two police officers on campus, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Rodriguez was not armed, and no officers or civilians were injured, Vancouver police Cpl. Holly Musser told The Columbian.
Clark set bail at Klein’s requested amount. She said she knew little about Rodriguez with the information she had on hand and expressed concern about the young man having mental health issues.
Police had contact with Rodriguez as recently as the night before the Clark College lockdown, according to Angela Daniels, Rodriguez’s mother.
Daniels called 911 on Thursday night and asked for officers trained in crisis intervention to do a mental health check on her son, who was at Esther Short Park screaming that he was going to die, she said.
Vancouver police responded and located Rodriguez, but they could not intervene as he declined to speak with the officers and stated that he could not be detained, according to Daniels.
It’s been a struggle to get Rodriguez any kind of help since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in November 2015, Daniels said. Her pleas to Clark County judges to have her son undergo a competency evaluation were repeatedly denied, she said.
She’s hoping this time is different. Daniels spoke with her son’s attorney following Tuesday’s hearing and was told an evaluation would be requested.
“I’m more optimistic about him getting help,” Daniels said. “I’m still concerned, but this is a start.”
