RIDGEFIELD — A 36-year-old man sought on robbery and drug possession warrants out of Lewis County was fatally shot Friday in a confrontation with SWAT officers at a home in Ridgefield, a Clark County sheriff’s spokesman said.
As officers were trying to persuade Derral Kenneth Mosby to surrender after a standoff, he came out of the house armed with a gun and confronted SWAT team members, Sgt. Fred Neiman said. Shots were fired and Mosby was hit. He was declared dead after he was placed into an ambulance.
No officers were injured. No one else was in the house.
The Mossyrock man had recently been the focus of a manhunt in Washington and Oregon.
The regional SWAT team was called in Friday afternoon after members of the U.S. Marshals Service Northwest violent offender task force checked the home where Mosby’s parents reportedly lived, thinking it was unoccupied, said Eric Wahlstrom, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal.
Task force members noticed an open back door and then saw someone shut it, Walstrom said.
They saw one of the windows open “and a bloody arm threw a paper airplane out the window,” Walstrom said.
The Columbian reported that the case was handed over to the Clark County sheriff’s office. Hostage negotiators used loudspeakers to try to talk the occupant out, Neiman said. Officers also tossed in smoke canisters and sent in a SWAT robot.
Mosby emerged about 4:30 p.m. Friday with a gun and confronted officers, the spokesman said.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn said Mosby was sought in Lewis County robbery and drug possession cases.
In the past week, he apparently traveled in Oregon and Washington.
On March 6, Mosby was traced to a southbound I-5 rest area just south of Ridgefield. His father called 911 that afternoon to report that his son had called him and said he was at the rest area with a gunshot wound in his leg, The Columbian reported.
A black Saturn believed associated with Mosby was found there and police tracked his cellphone to the area, but Mosby was gone, Finn said. Later that day, Mosby is accused of breaking into a house near the rest area and stealing a vehicle, according to the Linn County, Ore., sheriff’s office. He later used a pay phone near Salem, Ore., to call his family.
Last Sunday, Albany, Ore., police found the stolen vehicle, but not Mosby.
It’s unclear how he made his way north to Ridgefield.
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