One person is dead in a Tuesday police shooting in the parking lot of the Heights Shopping Center in central Vancouver, according to emergency radio traffic monitored by The Columbian.
The shooting occurred about a half-hour after a traffic stop was reported at 5:29 p.m. near 6701 E. Mill Plain Blvd. It’s unclear if the two incidents are connected.
According to emergency radio traffic, police reported a suspect had a gun, and then a report of shots fired was heard shortly before 6 p.m.
Medical was called at 5:48 p.m., and personnel on scene were performing CPR. The subject was declared dead at 5:52 p.m., according to emergency radio traffic. The identity of the person shot was not immediately available.
The Vancouver Police Department and Clark County Sheriff’s Office were on scene.
In a video posted to social media, officers, with their guns drawn, can be seen running through the parking lot. Someone is then heard calling out, “He has a gun!” A few seconds later, what appears to be another officer is seen firing their weapon, and multiple gunshots can be heard.
Crime scene tape was blocking a swath of the parking lot when a Columbian reporter arrived. Police erected a barrier to block the view of the body from the public. Evidence markers were placed near a Vancouver police vehicle, a distance away from where the officer can be seen firing their weapon in the video.
This isn’t the first shooting in that shopping center parking lot this year. A confrontation that resulted in a shooting left one person dead in March. Two people have been arrested in connection with that shooting.
