Police searching for man accused of stabbing woman in neck at Clark College
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man is accused of stabbing a woman in the neck on the campus of Clark College in Vancouver on Tuesday, which briefly placed the school in lockdown that afternoon. Now, police are searching for the suspect and releasing images of him to the public.
The Vancouver Police Department said the man may have been involved in another encounter with a different woman the day before in the parking lot at the college.
Police described the man’s appearance via a surveillance camera image, saying he is “East Asian or Middle Eastern, 30-40 years of age, medium build with a beard.”
Students at the college who spoke with KOIN 6 News said they were shaken up but found solace in the fact that there’s now more security on campus on Wednesday.
“It’s definitely nerve-racking, but you can just hope justice will be served,” said Paden Geddings, a student.
On Tuesday, police said they responded to the college following a report of a disturbance with a weapon. When they arrived, officers found a woman with a stab wound in the neck.
She told police that while she was sitting outside the Archer building, a man who was unknown to her came up to her, screaming and asking for help. The woman thought the man had punched her, only to realize from the blood she saw that she’d been stabbed. She was transported to a hospital and her injuries are considered non-life-threatening, officials said.
After the incident, the suspect fled on foot but police weren’t able to locate him. He was last seen heading north toward Water Works Park.
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“We actually waited for a bit until an assistant let us into the building. We were on lockdown until like 6:20 pm. We missed 20 minutes of class,” said David Dapp-Whisner, a Clark College student.
Corbyn Ormond said he was busy studying in the library for his classes when someone came by, saw him in the room, and said they needed to go into a different room. They got deadlocked into the secure room with one window and remained there for 30-40 minutes, he said.
“I remember a police truck going by. We saw it pass twice,” Ormond said. “There haven’t been many situations here on campus since I’ve been here.”
“It’s scary, especially for your fellow coworkers because the stabbing was an employee who worked here,” Geddings said. “There’s definitely way more security around. I believe there’s three officers on campus right now. They are definitely putting in precautions that everything in the campus is safe.”
Geddings added that since the incidents, workers at the campus have tended to walk back to their cars in pairs and have tried to be more aware of their surroundings.
The parking lot incident on Monday was described to police and involved a man matching the stabbing suspect’s description approaching a woman who was sitting inside her car. The man, who was unknown to her, came up to the driver’s side and tried to talk to her, officials said. When the woman opened her door, the man pulled on it, in an apparent attempt to enter the vehicle. The woman screamed and the man ran off. Clark College security responded to the incident and they later spoke with police about it.
Anyone who has information about the suspect is encouraged to contact the Vancouver Police Department.
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