Bullets from deputy-involved shooting pierce nearby home

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — Shemeah Soriano was in her family’s living room playing games on the computer around 2:30 a.m. Sunday when she heard gun shots. She took off her headphones and “heard 3 gunshots again.”

Concerned and confused, she got up from the computer desk and spotted a bullet hole.

“I panicked,” she told KOIN 6 News. “I went to my grandma’s room.”

That bullet hole she spotted is one of at least a dozen in the mobile home Soriano lives in with her brother and grandmother. The gunfire is reportedly from an officer-involved shooting where Clark County deputies killed an armed suspect.

The person wouldn’t pull over, so deputies gave chase. Deputies used their cars to block the suspect, but authorities said the suspect got out of the car armed with a handgun and wouldn’t obey orders to put it down. So officers shot him. The suspect — who has not been publicly identified — died at the scene.

One of the bullet holes appears to be level with the chair Soriano was sitting in. She said if the bullet traveled just a few feet farther it would have hit her in the back or in the head.

“Thank God. It’s a miracle, it’s a blessing that I’m alive,” she said.

Authorities contacted by KOIN 6 News declined to answer questions about the case because the investigation is still in its early stages. They said they expect an update in the next few days. The involved deputies are on administrative leave, standard procedure in these cases.

The Southwest Washington Regional Independent Investigation Team is investigating.

Shemeah Soriano said her family can’t wash clothes right now because the bullet that pierced their laundry room damaged their washing machine. She’s still shaken.

The police, she said, “didn’t even check out the (bullet) holes. They were just focused on the dead guy. They made us leave the front door open for hours.”

And she added one more thing.

“It’s just very dangerous because there’s people who live here. They shouldn’t have done that.”