Michael Boysen Caught: Washington man sought in grandparents' killing captured in Oregon motel, police say
(CBS/AP) LINCOLN CITY, Ore. - Police captured a Washington man suspected of killing his grandparents Tuesday after a tense daylong standoff at a seaside motel in Oregon.
Michael Boysen, 26, was sent to a Portland hospital after officers 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 where his initial condition was described as critical, hospital spokeswoman Judy Pahl said late Tuesday night.
Police said the bodies of Boysen's grandparents were found Saturday in their suburban Seattle home, a day after he was released from prison and was greeted with a welcome home party. The King County medical examiner's office identified the couple Tuesday as 82-year-old Robert Taylor and 80-year-old Norma Taylor. The cause and manner of their deaths remains under investigation.
Officials learned that Boysen made threats against his relatives and law enforcement officials while behind bars, Washington state Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis said Tuesday. But police didn't learn of the threats until after the bodies were discovered and authorities started the multistate manhunt.
Boysen checked into the WestShore OceanFront Suites on Monday night under his own name but wasn't recognized until Tuesday morning. That is when a motel employee saw a television story about the case and called police, Kilian said.
Police spent much of Tuesday trying to persuade Boysen to surrender. After breaching the motel room door, they stormed in and captured him.
No officers were hurt in the standoff, which Kilian termed "very successful." Law enforcement officials in Washington state previously described Boysen as extremely dangerous.
"We're certainly glad it's over and nobody else got hurt. We're glad they were able to take him into custody alive," King County Sheriff John Urquhart said in Seattle shortly after the capture.
During the standoff in the Oregon tourist town of Lincoln City, police pointed rifles at the motel, fired blasts from a water cannon to break the windows of Boysen's second-floor room. They also used a bullhorn to try to get him to give up.
Police then used a robot equipped with a video camera and a microphone to communicate with him. The robot was sent onto a balcony outside the motel room. Police breached the door and were able to communicate with Boysen through the robot.
When Boysen didn't come out on his own, police went in after him.
"We tried to negotiate," Kilian said. "We saw an opening that didn't compromise the safety of our officers."
Boysen just finished serving nine months in prison on a burglary conviction and had no violent infractions in prison, Lewis said.
He served a previous sentence between 2006 and February 2011 for four robbery convictions that 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 held a welcome home party for him Friday night.
Boysen's mother discovered the bodies Saturday evening after being 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."
Urquhart said it was not known why Boysen fled to Oregon.
"We didn't know he had gone to Oregon, had no particular reason to look there," Urquhart said.
King County sent two detectives to Oregon to talk with Boysen. He'll have to go through extradition, then King County hopes to "get him back here for trial," the sheriff said Tuesday evening.