VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A woman who was fatally shot by her estranged husband in an elementary school parking lot had been sitting in the minivan with her mother and her three young children, the woman’s family said in a post on a fundraising website.
Tiffany Hill was killed Tuesday outside Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School in Hazel Dell and police have said the shooter, Keland Hill, killed himself a short time later after a police chase.
Tiffany Hill’s sister, Tabitha Ojeda, said in a GoFundMe post on Wednesday that Hill’s three children were in the car and witnessed the shooting but were not physically injured. Her mother was shot three times and has undergone multiple surgeries but is expected to survive.
Ojeda said she and her other surviving sister will take in the three children and are trying to get together enough money for seven plane tickets back to New York.
Police have said Tiffany Hill had an active restraining order against Keland Hill, who had just posted bail when the shooting occurred.
“The road the children have ahead of them is not an easy one,” Ojeda wrote. “This journey will not be easy, it will be emotionally, physically, mentally and financially draining, but with all the love and support we can try to give these children the best lives we possibly can.”
The shooting happened after school had let out for the day and no one else was injured.
Court papers associated with the restraining order show an extensive history of abuse and violence, with Keland Hill repeatedly violating the restraining order, The Columbian newspaper has reported.
On Nov. 7, sheriff’s deputies responding to a call outside a restaurant poked around her vehicle and found a black box, with a GPS tracker inside, affixed to the fuel tank. Hill was arrested and accused of stalking her.
Clark County Superior Court Judge John Fairgrieve set bail in the stalking case at $75,000 during a first appearance hearing the next day. A week later, Deputy Prosecutor Lauren Boyd filed a motion to increase the bail to $2 million, arguing that additional information and a “danger assessment” filled out by Hill’s wife showed “that the victim is at extreme risk of being killed by the defendant.”
The motion also states that Hill had been arrested in Maryland and North Carolina for abusing his wife, but the cases had been dismissed.
Fairgrieve raised Hill’s bail to $250,000 at a Nov. 15 hearing. Court records show that Boyd asked for electronic monitoring of the defendant, but that motion was denied. However, the court ordered “intensive conditions” to be set if Hill posted bail.
Court records show Hill posted bail Nov. 22.
On Tuesday, hours before the murder, he was back in the judge’s court for a motion to approve commuting to work using a vehicle.
An affidavit indicated that Fairgrieve permitted Hill to travel to White Salmon and Hood River, Oregon, for work purposes only.
