Clark County deputies are searching for a shooting suspect who remains on the run after gunfire erupted near an apartment complex on St. Johns Road in the Minnehaha neighborhood, just north of SR-500. The investigation was actively underway Wednesday, with deputies urging nearby residents to avoid the area while they work the scene.
According to KATU, deputies are investigating a shooting that occurred near an apartment complex on St. Johns Road, and the suspect had not been located as of the station’s report. Deputies asked people to avoid the area as the investigation continues, the station noted, without providing further detail on the suspect’s description or a motive for the shooting.
The stretch of St. Johns Road where the shooting happened sits in Minnehaha, an unincorporated pocket of Clark County that is bordered on three sides by the city of Vancouver and is home to an estimated 12,613 residents across just 2.2 square miles, according to World Population Review. The corridor runs alongside State Route 500, a 22.6-mile highway connecting Interstate 5 to Interstate 205 that handles heavy commuter traffic through central Vancouver, per Wikipedia’s entry on the route.
A Corridor With a History of Violent Incidents
This is not the first time gunfire has sent deputies scrambling through the Minnehaha area. In April 2020, deputies responded to a drive-by shooting near Northeast St. Johns Road that ended in a vehicle crash and a foot pursuit across the neighborhood, with witnesses telling The Reflector that the suspects had met at a nearby gas station before the shooting. Less than two years later, in February 2022, a high-speed chase following a shooting near Northeast St. Johns Road and 68th Street ended in a crash and a multi-agency search that ultimately captured three suspects, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office; one of those suspects was sentenced in 2024 to 150 months in prison…