Man steals deputy’s patrol car

A man suspected of stealing a deputy sheriff’s patrol car was in custody Sunday evening after a wild morning that included a foot pursuit, a shooting, and a knock on a neighbor’s door by an extremely cold suspect.

According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, it all began shortly after 2 a.m. in Hazel Dell, when a deputy stopped an old pickup truck on Highway 99 at Northeast 78th Street. Upon identifying the driver, the deputy learned he was the respondent in a no-contact order involving another man.

The deputy then asked the male passenger in the vehicle for his identification to see whether the driver was in violation of the no-contact order. However, the passenger gave a false name and then, while the deputy was questioning the driver, began to run.

The deputy chased him, but the passenger circled back and jumped behind the wheel of the patrol car, shoved it in gear, and started driving toward the deputy, according to Sgt. Kevin Allais of the sheriff’s major crimes team.

The deputy pulled out his weapon and fired one shot into the patrol car, but the car thief drove away westbound on 78th Street.

More deputies and Vancouver police officers arrived. They soon located the stolen patrol car abandoned about a mile away on Northwest 15th Avenue, about two blocks south of 78th. A search by a police tracking dog was unsuccessful.

Several hours later, Kris Hunter heard a knock at the door of the Lake Shore home he shares with his grandparents.

When he opened the door, he saw a dirty, dripping-wet man with one shoe. He didn’t appear to be injured, but was extremely cold.

“I was skeptical of him, but he was looking like he would die of hypothermia,” Hunter said. So he invited the man in the house.

He gave the man some warm, dry clothes and allowed him to call a taxi.

The man wasn’t threatening, Hunter said, and told a story about how his truck had broken down and he had wandered into and across a creek while looking for some help.

Meanwhile, according to deputies, a citizen had seen a suspicious-looking man with one shoe walking in the neighborhood and had called police.

Putting two and two together, deputies and Vancouver officers converged on the area, set up an area of containment, and began another search with the tracking dog.

The incident came to a conclusion about 9:45 a.m. in the 8100 block of Northwest 11th Court when Vancouver Cpl. Dwayne Boynton spotted and stopped a taxi. The driver stepped out of the cab and Boynton arrested his passenger, identified as Raymond Harold Hall, 30, of Vancouver.

Hall was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for a minor gunshot wound. He was then taken to the Clark County Jail and booked on suspicion of first-degree assault, first-degree theft and a felony warrant alleging probation violation.

According to Columbian files, in October 2007 Hall was ordered to spend 17 months in prison after he was convicted in Clark County of possession of methamphetamine, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and four counts of identity theft.

The deputy who fired the shot was placed on a routine administrative leave pending an investigation. His name was not released.

The driver of the pickup truck was found to have not violated his no-contact order and was released, Allais said.

Craig Brown: 360-735-4514; craig.brown@columbian.com.