A Clark County Circuit judge has set bail at $1.5 million for a Vancouver man accused of stabbing four people at a Washington casino with a hunting knife and leading sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed car chase Monday night.
Scott Harmier, 41, was charged in Clark County Circuit Court with four counts of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of attempting to elude police, court records show.
A man and a woman were stabbed in the head and a woman was stabbed twice in the side of the neck. A fourth victim, a man, was stabbed in the forehead, wrist and shoulder – close enough to an artery to require being admitted to the hospital, according to court records. A security guard was stabbed while trying to intervene, court records show.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive spells out how the unprovoked attack unfolded inside the New Phoenix and Last Frontier Casinos in La Center, about 18 miles north of Vancouver.
Surveillance camera footage reviewed by Clark County sheriff’s deputies shows Harmier dressed in a white hoodie and sitting at one of the casino’s poker tables shortly before midnight, according to the affidavit.
Harmier appeared to, with no apparent reason, reach down with his right hand, grab something and then stab a man sitting on his left five times in the head and chest, court records show.
The footage shows other casino patrons trying to intervene, but Harmier swinging his knife at them, according to the affidavit. He then approached a woman sitting to his right and stabbed her three times, the affidavit said.
Harmier is shown chasing a man outside, who falls to the ground. Harmier appears to stab the man twice, then “casually walks” to a white sedan and drives off, court records show.
One of the victims who was stabbed in the head called 911, reporting that he and several others were injured and that the attacker had fled toward Interstate 5 in a white Nissan sedan, according to court records.
Deputies spotted the Nissan traveling south on Interstate 205 and chased after it, at one point reaching over 130 mph. Harmier eventually slowed down and deputies used a “pursuit immobilization technique” to stop his car, court records show. The affidavit doesn’t describe the technique.
When a deputy told Harmier to show his hands, Harmier “lit a cigarette and started smoking it as he smiled,” the affidavit said.
The deputy opened the car door and pulled Harmier out by his arm and arrested Hamier, who was “chuckling” while taken into custody, according to court records.
Deputies reported seeing blood on Harmier’s white hoodie and a knife sheath on his passenger side seat.
