A man fatally shot by police after firing at them in a Vancouver Safeway parking lot in May was carrying a 9mm handgun and a handwritten robbery note and had a wig, burglary tools and a pipe bomb in his car, investigators said Friday.
James Wilson, 43, had active warrants for his arrest and was suspected of being involved in two armed robberies and a commercial burglary in Vancouver between May 20 and May 29, according to a statement released by the Lower Columbia Major Crimes.
Investigators found the robbery note and semiautomatic pistol in Wilson’s possession. The gun had five rounds in the magazine but none in the chamber and it was registered to a person in another state, they said.
Investigators also executed a search warrant on Wilson’s car where they found a second robbery note along with the wig, tools and bomb. The Portland Metro Bomb Squad disabled the device, the statement said.
Vancouver police and Clark County sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest Wilson May 30 after seeing him enter the Safeway in the 6700 block of East Mill Plain Boulevard. The agencies had been told Wilson was armed and had made statements that he would “shoot police rather than be taken into custody,” the statement said.
When Wilson exited the Safeway, officers standing near his car ordered him to stop, but Wilson ran west.
Video footage from nearby surveillance cameras and police body-worn cameras shows Wilson reaching toward his back and officers calling out that he had a gun. Wilson is seen in the video pointing a gun at a police officer with his index finger in the trigger well of the pistol, investigators said.
A magnified and slowed-down version of one officer’s body camera video shows Wilson firing at least one shot and the officer firing multiple rounds back as Wilson continued to run away before dropping to the pavement.
The three police officers and one sheriff’s deputy who shot Wilson told investigators they fired because Wilson “presented an imminent deadly threat,” the statement said.
The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office identified the officers and deputy who fired as Vancouver police officers Colton Price, Brandon Riedel and Aaron Yoder and Clark County sheriff’s detective Zach Nielsen.
Wilson died at the scene. The Clark County medical examiner determined his cause of death was from multiple gunshot wounds.
The Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team said the four officers fired 20 rounds, six of which struck Wilson.
The officers and deputy were placed on administrative leave, per the agencies’ protocol.
