LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — An alert Oregon seaside motel employee helped police capture a Washington state man suspected of killing his grandparents after they picked him up from prison and hosted a welcome home party for him.
Tactical officers from several agencies swarmed to the tourist town of Lincoln City after a property manager at the WestShore OceanFront Suites recognized Michael Boysen’s face and name after seeing him on television and called police early Tuesday morning.
Boysen, 26, checked in under his own name Monday night, motel owner Kent Landers told The Oregonian.
Police used a robot equipped with a video camera and a microphone to communicate with Boysen Tuesday in hopes of persuading him to surrender. After a tense daylong standoff punctuated with water cannon blasts, bullhorn shouts and tear gas, officers breached the door, which Boysen reportedly had barricaded with a refrigerator.
They found him lying on the floor on his back with apparently serious self-inflicted cuts, Lincoln City police Chief Keith Kilian said. He was flown to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland where nursing supervisor Judy Pahl said Wednesday his condition had been upgraded from critical to serious.
No officers were hurt in the standoff, which Kilian termed “very successful.”
King County sent two detectives to Oregon in hopes of talking with Boysen, Sheriff John Urquhart said. Depending on his medical condition, he’ll have to go through extradition, then King County hopes to “get him back here for trial,” the sheriff said Tuesday evening.
The bodies of Boysen’s grandparents were found Saturday in their suburban Seattle home, a day after Boysen was released from prison.
Officials also learned that Boysen had made threats against his relatives and law enforcement officials while behind bars. That information was passed on to King County deputies, which is why Urquhart called Boysen extremely dangerous at a Monday news conference. Investigators also determined that Boysen had been searching the Internet for gun shows.
Boysen just finished serving nine months in prison on a burglary conviction, said Washington state Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis. Boysen had no violent infractions in prison — “nothing extraordinary,” Lewis said.
He served a previous sentence between 2006 and February 2011 for four robbery convictions. Those convictions were related to an addiction to narcotic painkillers, Lewis said.
Boysen’s grandparents picked him up from prison Friday and drove him to meet his probation officer and to get an identification card from the Department of Licensing. They hosted a welcome home party for him Friday night.
Boysen’s mother discovered the bodies Saturday evening. She had been called by a family member who became concerned that the couple hadn’t answered their door.
The motive for the killings remains unknown, King County sheriff’s Sgt. Cindi West said.
“Between the family and detectives we have no idea,” she said. “It’s just bizarre. The family loved and supported him the whole time he was in prison.”
The King County medical examiner’s office identified the couple Tuesday as Robert R. Taylor, 82, and Norma J. Taylor, 80. They died Saturday. The cause and manner of their deaths remains under investigation, the medical examiner said.
Urquhart said it was not known why Boysen fled south. “We didn’t know he had gone to Oregon, had no particular reason to look there.”
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