Clark County Sheriff's Deputies respond to a shooting in Hazel Dell on Feb 4, 2021. The incident started as a traffic stop according to dispatch logs. (Courtesy of KATU)
Authorities released no information as of press time Friday about a Thursday night shooting by Clark County sheriff’s deputies in Hazel Dell.
The identity and condition of the shooting victim was not disclosed; they were taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Involved deputies were placed on critical incident leave per standard protocol, according to a police bulletin issued late Thursday night. Their names were not disclosed.
The Regional Independent Investigation Team is conducting the investigation, and the Vancouver Police Department is handling the release of information.
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Police department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said Friday afternoon she had not yet received an update from the Regional Independent Investigation Team.
The team is required to provide weekly updates on police shooting investigations in accordance with the Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act, formerly known as I-940. The law calls for a completely independent investigation into police use of deadly force. One of the goals of the law is to increase transparency by law enforcement.
In previous police shootings, the team hasn’t always released new information in its weekly updates.
Dispatch records show the incident appears to have been connected to a 7:41 p.m. traffic stop by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office near the intersection of Northeast 68th Street and Second Avenue, in a residential area about five blocks west of Hazel Dell Elementary School.
Clark County Fire District 6 and AMR responded to the same location four minutes later to treat someone suffering from a gunshot wound, according to dispatch records. Early reports indicated the person had died at the scene, but that information was found to be in error and corrected.
A tan, four-door Mercedes sedan, with Oregon license plates, appeared to have crashed into a wooden fence in the yard of a residence on Northeast 69th Street near the corner of Second Avenue. The area was surrounded by crime scene tape, and an investigator walked around the car with a flashlight.
The scene was visible from the back parking lot of Amazing Grace Baptist Church, where media staged. Patrol vehicles blocked 68th Street at Hazel Dell Avenue and just east of Third Avenue, as well as the surrounding area, for the investigation.
This is the second shooting by deputies in about three months’ time.
Three Clark County deputies fatally shot Kevin Peterson Jr., a 21-year-old Black man, after a confidential informant had arranged to buy 50 Xanax pills from him outside a Quality Inn in Hazel Dell on the evening of Oct. 29, according to investigators. That shooting investigation is being reviewed by Pierce County prosecutors.
Reporter Jerzy Shedlock contributed to this report.
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