Prosecutors from across Washington will examine killing of Jenoah Donald By Jessica Prokop, Columbian Assistant Metro Editor
Published: April 28, 2021, 6:56pm
Share: Clark County Sheriff s Deputies respond to a shooting in Hazel Dell on Feb 4, 2021. The incident started as a traffic stop according to dispatch logs. (Courtesy of KATU)
The investigation into the shooting of Jenoah Donald, a Black motorist killed by a Clark County deputy, will be examined by a statewide panel of prosecutors, in a new move to create independence in the review process.
The panel was created by the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys to help assess whether the deputy’s actions were legally justified. Donald’s case will be the first reviewed under the new model. The panel includes the elected prosecutors from Lewis, Yakima, Pend Oreille, Snohomish and Pierce counties.
Letter: How do we protect the public? By Rheta Rubenstein, Ridgefield
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March 7 marked two years since Carlos Hunter died at the hands of Vancouver police. He, along with Clayton Joseph and Michael Pierce, were lost within a month. Since then we also lost William Abbe and Alexander Williams to the Vancouver Police Department and Kevin Peterson Jr. and Jenoah Donald to Clark County sheriff’s deputies.
At a 2019 NAACP meeting, a mother told Chief James McElvain, essentially, “My son is 15. He looks like he’s 22. He acts like he’s 8. Can I bring him to your agency and introduce him to your officers?” In my mind I imagined the implied conclusion, “so they don’t kill him.”
Linda Taylor picks up an envelope marked evidence from the Clark County Medical Examiner s Office. Taylor says she never imagined her son would be shot by police. “Then it happens to your own family,” she said. “Then you’re really asking, in shock, ‘what happened?’” Kristyna Wentz-Graff
Originally published on February 4, 2021 9:29 am
The person on the other side of Treva Smith’s cellphone one Wednesday evening last April asked a simple question: “Did you hear about Bill?”
The call came a day after Vancouver police shot and killed her nephew, William Abbe. A bystander filmed the encounter, which then spread on Facebook. Smith watched once, then called her husband into the living room to watch together.
Top 10 stories of 2020: Pandemic, shootings, wildfires hit Clark County by The Columbian
The SARS-COV-2 virus is incredibly small, but the reverberations of its impact on humanity dominated the events of 2020 and will linger for years.
There was never any question that the novel coronavirus pandemic is The Columbian’s and the world’s top story of 2020.
Clark County’s first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was reported on March 7. Since then, it has sickened more than 12,000 people and taken the lives of more than 135 people.
It has shuttered businesses, reinvented learning and upended nearly every aspect of Clark County life.
Homeless people who died in 2020 in Clark County remembered at service
Published: December 22, 2020, 12:42pm
Share: Laura Ellsworth, right, writes a message on a memorial board set up Friday at St. PaulÌs Lutheran Church in Vancouver. Ellsworth is with the Council for the Homeless, which helped set up the board with the names of the homeless from the community who died in 2020. On Monday night, the council held a virtual ceremony to remember the members of the community who died in 2020. (Jeff Klein/The Columbian files)
Like many things affected by COVID-19, Clark County’s homeless population is at increased risk.