VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — Five young men were detained by Vancouver police less than an hour after shots were fired during what may be a road rage incident.
Two men were later arrested: Manuel Villa-Rodriguez, 20, faces charges of 1st-degree assault and drive-by shooting; and Christian Martinez, 18, was arrested for obstructing a police officer.
Additional arrests are expected, Vancouver police said Friday night.
The shooting erupted at a busy intersection just blocks from Clark College and Hudson’s Bay High School after an argument that began in front of a Texaco gas station.
The incident began around 11:40 a.m. Friday at Fourth Plain and Grand Boulevard when, witnesses told KOIN 6 News people inside a Chevy Tahoe threw a bottle and then fired 6 times at a landscaping truck.
The landscaper turned and drove in the opposite direction, witnesses told KOIN 6 News. Vancouver police later said they found the truck and saw “several bullet holes.”
The cashier at the Texaco station told KOIN 6 News the dispute started when the driver of the landscaping truck may have intervened as the now-suspects harrassed someone at the store.
“There has been some information coming in that it is possibly gang related and we’ll look at all angles,” said Vancouver Police Lt. Kathy McNicholas. “It could be traffic related. It could be people who know each other, but at this point we don’t have enough information to say.”
Shawna Archer was sitting in the intersection of Grand and 4th Plain and watched several young men jump out of a Chevy Tahoe and start shooting at an older Ford landscaping truck hauling a wood chipper.
“I wasn’t being shot at but my life flashed before my eyes because I’ve got kids and it was like if they catch me looking at them is he going to shoot at me?” she told KOIN 6 News. “I was looking at the shooter trying to get a description by looking at his license plate and they looked right at me.”
A number of police vehicles were seen speeding to the scene and then to Neals Lane, about 6 blocks away. At that location, police found and took the men into custody.
Four of them were in handcuffs while the fifth was wheeled on a gurney into an ambulance. He was alert and talking. It is not known how he was injured, or what his injury is.
