Vancouver police officers are dispatched to Smith Tower, 515 Washington St., for a report of a disturbance with a weapon.The following is a summary of communications between emergency officials from emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian. The shooting prompted a roughly 2½-hour standoff. I have the utmost confidence in our officers as they work to resolve the situation.”Ī man was killed and two women were injured Thursday afternoon in a shooting at Smith Tower Apartments in downtown Vancouver. “I commend our police officers, fire and EMS personnel who quickly responded to the scene. “While we are still learning about what happened surrounding the shooting incident this afternoon in downtown Vancouver, our hearts go out to the victims and their families as they deal with this tragedy,” Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said in a written statement. Following a final sweep of the building, residents were given clearance to return to their apartments. Police kept the area of Fifth and Sixth streets from Main to Washington streets closed for several hours after taking Breck into custody. Area C-Tran bus routes were detoured during the response. Law enforcement cordoned off a three-block radius around Smith Tower, with police vehicles bumper to bumper on surrounding streets. Some residents who sheltered in place looked down from their windows on the crowd gathering below. When she exited the building, she said she saw a man on the ground, as well as an injured woman being stabilized and put onto a stretcher.Įvacuated residents were kept warm and dry in a C-Tran bus at Sixth and Washington streets. They told her to stay calm and continue down the stairs. Two officers carrying guns told her to put her hands up, she said. Unaware of what had happened, she walked downstairs to her ninth-floor apartment to grab her purse before work. Trish Gatley, 74, said she was visiting a friend on the 10th floor at the time of the shooting. I said, ‘Oh, you’re looking like a stud.’ ” “I had just been in the lobby with this guy,” she said, adding that he was on his way to sell a motorcycle and was dressed in leathers. She said she saw her friend lying on the ground. “They said, ‘Stay in your apartment.’ ” She was later evacuated from the building through the garage. “They had their guns drawn,” said the resident, who declined to give her name. The elevators inside the 15-story tower were shut off as police worked to contain the gunman to the 13th floor, where a drone hovered outside his window.Ī 12th floor resident, who was friends with the man who was killed, said she watched SWAT officers walk past her door through the peep hole. SWAT officers evacuated the residents who were able to navigate the stairs and told the rest to shelter in place. Shortly after, witnesses to the shooting were ushered from the building by law enforcement and taken to City Hall to be interviewed.Īfter police identified Breck as the suspect, a crisis negotiation team started communicating with him via phone before 3 p.m. The injured victims were tended to in the building’s parking lot until paramedics arrived and transported them to the hospital. Teams of four officers, holding the victims’ arms and legs, carried them out the front door - one appeared to be dead. Breck was holed up in his apartment on the building’s 13th floor on the south side.Īrmed SWAT officers swarmed the building. to 515 Washington St., where they found three victims in the lobby suffering from gunshot wounds. He went to the dress shop next door and called 911, he said. When he got inside, the witness said he saw Breck standing with a handgun in the lobby and heard “boom-boom.” The witness turned and fled. The witness entered through the same door a short time later. A 77-year-old man, who’s a resident and asked not to be identified, said he saw Breck enter the building through the side door. He allegedly fired shots in the building’s lobby shortly after 2 p.m. He will make a first appearance on the allegations Friday morning in Clark County Superior Court. However, the two who were injured were transported to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where a hospital spokesman said both were in satisfactory condition.īreck was booked into the Clark County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to the Vancouver Police Department. The victims have not yet been identified. Breck, 80, a resident of the senior living building, was taken into custody after a standoff with law enforcement that lasted nearly 2 ½ hours. The suspected shooter, identified by police as Robert E. A man was killed and two women were injured in a shooting Thursday afternoon in the lobby of Smith Tower Apartments in downtown Vancouver.
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