Brush Prairie man in court accused of vehicular assault in road rage incident at Vancouver restaurant parking lot
May 19-A Brush Prairie man is accused of hitting two teenage boys with his car after one of the teens allegedly harassed him while on an electric dirt bike in the parking lot of a Vancouver fast-food restaurant last week.
Vancouver police said both the man and the teenager are facing criminal allegations in what the department described as a road rage incident.
Charles Thorsen, 38, appeared May 13 in Clark County Superior Court on allegations of vehicular assault and second-degree assault. Prosecutors have since filed charges of vehicular assault and first-degree assault.
Judge Tsering Cornell set Thorsen's bail at $75,000, noting the violent nature of the allegations. He has since posted bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 22 and expected to hire a private attorney, court records show.
Neither police nor court records identified the teen, who is facing allegations of harassment and malicious mischief, police said.
According to court records, Thorsen was stopped about 3:30 p.m. May 12 at the drive-thru exit at Taco Bell, 15610 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., when two boys, both 16, began riding the bike through the parking lot preventing him from leaving.
A social media post from the Vancouver Police Department said officers learned the teens had allegedly been driving recklessly through the parking lot, harassing people and damaging property, including Thorsen's side mirror.
Thorsen struck the teens with the front left of his vehicle, which security footage from the business captured. One of the teens suffered a compound leg fracture, police said. The teens were taken to a local hospital for further evaluation.
In an interview with police, Thorsen allegedly said "he was only intending to knock some sense into the children" and clarified he meant it as a figure of speech, according to court records.
A witness told police he overheard Thorsen saying "I'm gonna run them over, I'm serious" and "I have a knife," court records state.
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