A 77-year-old Vancouver man is accused of punching a woman in a Walmart parking lot in Hazel Dell, in an altercation that started over a parked car and ended with deputies hauling him out of his own home the next day. Timothy Coe now faces a fourth-degree assault charge after the Tuesday morning confrontation left the woman with redness on her face, swelling around her eyelid, and bruising on her arms, according to investigators.
According to the Oregonian/OregonLive, the woman was in the process of putting her child into her car when she tapped Coe's vehicle to get the driver's attention, fearing he might hit her open car door. What followed was an argument that deputies say turned physical: the woman told them Coe punched her on the right side of her face with his left fist and grabbed her arms. The Clark County Sheriff's Office said the confrontation unfolded in the Walmart lot in Hazel Dell.
A witness intervened and separated the two before the situation could escalate further, per the same account. The woman called 911 at about 10:13 a.m. Tuesday to report that a man had punched her in the face and pushed her to the ground, according to the sheriff's office.
Evidence and Injuries Documented at the Scene
Deputies who responded observed redness on the woman's face, swelling around her eyelid, and bruising on her arms, according to KOIN. The woman also provided law enforcement with video footage and photographs from the incident, including images that captured the suspect's car and its license plate, the station reported.
That evidence appears to have helped investigators track Coe down. Deputies arrested him at his home the day after the incident, on Wednesday, and booked him into Clark County Jail on the fourth-degree assault charge.
Release From Jail and What Comes Next
Coe has since been released from custody, according to the jail's online roster, and had not yet made an initial court appearance as of the article's publication. Under Washington law, RCW 9A.36.041 defines fourth-degree assault as assaulting another person under circumstances that do not rise to first-, second-, or third-degree assault or custodial assault.
