Conflict at Walmart leads to investigation, no arrests

A man authorities haven’t identified was following around another customer, Damian Silva, 21, pestering him and “giving him a hard time,” Cheli said. Silva repeatedly asked the man to leave him alone, but the pursuer wouldn’t relent.

When words failed, Silva lifted his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband “in hopes the man would stop harassing him.” The weapon in question was actually a BB gun, but it resembled a real firearm.

“Silva never removed the gun from his waistband or pointed it at anybody,” Cheli said.

However, at one point, witnesses told police, another man intervened and the argument became physical. The third man struck the alleged harasser on the face with a milk jug, Cheli said.

The man who got struck — and allegedly started the whole mishap — wasn’t seriously injured, and eventually left the store.

After the conflict was over, Silva drove off to Taco Bell restaurant across the street, at 2649 Cascade Avenue.

Officers responded at about 3:12 p.m., on report that the driver of a white Toyota Corolla with a Washington plate had left the scene of a “disturbance” at Walmart with a firearm.

Multiple police cruisers pulled into the Taco Bell parking lot. Officers drew their guns and handcuffed Silva, then questioned him while he sat on the pavement next to the car’s open trunk, where police found the BB gun.

Silva cooperated with authorities. Police detained him in a patrol vehicle for a short period, before confirming the gun in his trunk wasn't real, and that Silva’s side of the story matched up with accounts from witnesses at Walmart.

Investigators interviewed several other people that afternoon, at the nearby Chevron gas station, just east of Taco Bell. Hood River County Sheriff’s deputies assisted Hood River Police Department with the on-scene investigation.

No charges were filed and the reported harasser’s identity is still unknown.

“Nobody was arrested. It was kind of a wash,” Cheli said.