Police have identified the suspect of an early Wednesday morning shooting at the Hazel Dell Walmart as 35-year-old Shaun Michael Sprague of Gillete, Wyo.
Sprague has been booked into Clark County Jail on a first-degree assault charge. Detectives continue to work this investigation.
Police responded to reports of an active shooter inside the Hazel Dell Walmart off Highway 99 early this morning, after a 9-1-1 call came in at 6:55 a.m., Wed., Oct. 5, less than one hour after the store opened to the public for the day.
Law enforcement officers from several agencies responded and took the suspect, an adult male, into custody without incident. Police searched the store for potential victims and possible accomplices, but say no one was injured or shot during the incident.
Detectives from the Clark County Major Crimes Unit are currently on the scene at the Walmart, located at 9000 N.E. Highway 99 in Hazel Dell, and say they will release more information as it becomes available.
Walmart has become known for having problems with violence in and around its more than 4,500 U.S. stores. According to a report published by Bloomberg Businessweek earlier this year, 200 violent crimes — a shooting, murder, stabbing or kidnapping — took place in a Walmart store or parking lot in the first eight months of 2016.
There have been at least four other shootings at Walmart stores since that article’s publication, not including the active shooter incident at the Vancouver Walmart this morning:
June 14, 2016 — An active shooter takes hostages at a Walmart in Amarillo, Texas. A SWAT team frees the hostages and kills the suspected shooter.
Sept. 10, 2016 — A “good Samaritan” shoots and kills a man accused of accosting a woman in the parking lot of a Kansas City area Walmart and of shooting another man who had tried to intervene.
Sept. 17, 2016 — New Jersey police shoot a suspected shoplifter at a Kearny, N.J., Walmart. The suspect, who police say was trying to run them over in his car while fleeing the scene, survives the shooting.
Sept. 19, 2016 — A middle-aged man was shot to death in the parking lot of a Florida Walmart. Police said the shooting may have been drug-related.
