A city council member from Camas was arrested Friday after allegedly throwing a rock and pointing a gun at a fisherman along the Washougal River Greenway, police said.
John Vincent Svilarich, 66, was walking over a pedestrian bridge around 8 p.m. on Aug. 31 when he got into an argument with a fisherman on the Washougal River, police said.
The argument escalated and Svilarich threw an 8-inch rock toward the fisherman below from the bridge and “brandished a handgun and aimed it towards” the fisherman, police said in a statement.
Reached by phone, Svilarich told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he had hired a lawyer and that he had not yet seen the police department’s statement.
“I can assure you I did nothing wrong,” Svilarich said.
Officers interviewed both of them on the day of the argument and arrested Svilarich 13 days later after a follow-up investigation, police said. He faces allegations of reckless endangerment and aiming or discharging a firearm.
Svilarich was sworn in as a council member Jan. 1 and his term lasts through 2027, according to his biography page on the Clark County city’s website. His family moved to the Prune Hill area in Camas in 2002, according to the bio, and his sons went to school in Camas and still live in the area.
“He loves our trails, parks and outdoor spaces,” the bio reads. “He can often be found along one of our many trails or rivers, walking his dog and enjoying nature.”
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