Large police response on Sunday concerns La Center residents

Posted

More than 35 law enforcement vehicles filled La Center with SWAT response for an alleged barricaded subject in a home on West Third Street around noon on Sunday, Nov. 24, according to two Vancouver Police Officers actively flying drones.  

The large law enforcement response concerned Clark County community members who took to social media to post about seeing the consistent flow of patrol vehicles, SWAT rigs and an ambulance traveling north on Interstate 5 before noon. Commenters on posts in Facebook stated that bomb squad and SWAT responders were at the Frontier Cardroom in La Center, but law enforcement staged along West Fifth Street and Aspen Avenue to move SWAT vehicles to the active scene on West Third Street. 

Patrol cars from Washougal Police Department, Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Vancouver Police Department, a Southwest Washington Special Weapons and Tactics Portland Metro Explosive Disposal Unit vehicle and more were at the staging area. 

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for further information on the incident via phone calls and texts to media correspondents by the Reflector ahead of press time. 

In law enforcement news on Saturday, the Vancouver Police Department Major Crime Unit and the Vancouver Police Department Crime Reduction Unit (CRU), with assistance from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Battle Ground Police Department, served another warrant at a Battle Ground residence related to a series of bank robbery investigations in Vancouver, and the Portland/metro area, according to a news release. See The Reflector’s story on page 2 for more information. 

The Saturday search warrant resulted in the arrest of Bryan Russell Vaughan Duke, 44, for the following robberies:

  • Sept. 13: Umpqua Bank, 11515 SE Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver 
  • Oct. 17: Umpqua Bank, 10705 NE Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver 
  • Oct. 25: U.S. Bank, 11621 SE Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver

Vaughan Duke has been booked into the Clark County Jail on three counts of Robbery I. Additional charges are likely pending, according to a news release.