Vancouver man to serve two years for firing gun at fleeing vehicle

A Vancouver man was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday for shooting at a car full of people, including his ex-girlfriend, as they drove away from him, according to court records.

Cornelius Maleik Birdsong, 20, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and violating a domestic violence court order. He was originally charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree assault, according to court records. He was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison for the felony charges and 364 days, with all of that time suspended, on the gross misdemeanor charges.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Vancouver police officers were dispatched at 5:07 a.m. Oct. 10 to the area of Southeast 196th Avenue and 34th Street for a report that someone was chasing and shooting at a group of people.

Arriving officers came upon a blue car with an apparent bullet hole, according to the affidavit. A passenger in the vehicle told police she’d gone to the home of her former boyfriend, Birdsong, with the three other people in the car.

She said she “had knocked on Birdsong’s window and had knocked a piece of the window out,” the affidavit says.

She and Birdsong started arguing, and the dispute turned physical when Birdsong struck her multiple times, according to the affidavit. The woman ran back to her vehicle and fled; Birdsong hopped in a car and pursued the group.

“Birdsong fired multiple shots at the vehicle — striking the rear of the victim vehicle. At least one shot damaged the frame of the vehicle, penetrating the back hatch door and entering into the passenger compartment,” the affidavit says.

Court records do not state whether anyone was wounded.

Birdsong fled, and officers were unable to immediately locate him. But the Clark County Jail’s inmate roster indicates he was arrested the same day as the shooting.