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By Maxine Bernstein
oregonlive.com
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Body camera footage released from a Vancouver police shooting last month shows an armed man running from officers in the lot of a busy Safeway store, pulling a gun and firing at one responding officer before he was fatally shot and collapsed on the parking lot pavement.
Joshua James Willson, 43, of Vancouver, was shot multiple times in his chest, back and leg, according to the video, and was pronounced dead at the scene on May 30.
Police said Wilson was a suspect in several armed robberies.
Last month’s Vancouver police shooting was the first to have occurred since the department equipped its officers with body-worn cameras in February.
The videos released came from body cameras worn by Vancouver police Officer Brandon Riedel and Detectives Colton Price and Aaron Yoder. A Clark County sheriff’s Detective Zach Nielsen also fired shots but the sheriff’s office has not yet issued cameras for its officers.
About 5:30 p.m., a Vancouver police detective from the department’s Neighborhood Response Team saw Wilson driving west in the 6700 block of E. Mill Plain Blvd. and knew he was wanted in multiple, recent armed robberies, according to Vancouver police.
The detective called for backup and followed the car to the Safeway grocery store at East Mill Plain Boulevard and Andresen Road. Records show Wilson’s recent home address was in an apartment building along East Mill Plain Boulevard.
Police received a notice warning them that Wilson was armed and had allegedly made comments that he would shoot police rather than be taken into custody, investigators said.
Police said Wilson walked out of the Safeway, and when he spotted the officers, he dropped a bag he was carrying, showed a gun and ran through the parking lot.
Body camera footage shows several officers armed with rifles running through the busy grocery store parking lot, yelling, “Go! Go! Go!” and “Police! Get down or you’re going to get shot!” as they chased Wilson.
Another officer pulled up closer to Wilson, as Wilson was seen running in front of a Northwest Medical Supply store at one end of the Vancouver strip mall.
The officer emerged from the driver’s seat of his patrol car, holding his gun, and yelled, “Drop the gun!’’ two times.
A magnified and slowed-down version of his body camera video shows Wilson turned toward the officer and fired at least one shot, and the officer fired multiple rounds back, as Wilson continued to run away and then dove and dropped to the pavement.
Several officers approached Wilson after he was on the ground, put chest patches on his wounds on his chest, back and legs while one began CPR compressions before paramedics arrived. A handgun could be seen on the ground near him.
One officer cut away Wilson’s shirt, revealing a swastika tattooed on his back.
“He was firing me at me…I think I’m good,” one officer is heard saying to his colleagues.
Vancouver police released body-camera footage from three officers but did not identify what video belonged to which officer.
The Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team, led by the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, is continuing to investigate the shooting.
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