Murder suspect captured after daylong Lincoln City standoff

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. - A Washington state man suspected of killing his grandparents was taken into custody without incident Tuesday night after a daylong standoff with police at a Lincoln City motel.

A KATU News reporter on the scene said a SWAT team took advantage of an opening at about 7 p.m. to go into the Westshore Oceanfront Suites motel and take 26-year-old Michael Boysen into custody.

Police say he suffered self-inflicted cutting wounds during the standoff and they found him injured when they entered the room. He was lying on the floor on his back.

"We're certainly glad it's over and nobody else got hurt. We're glad they were able to take him into custody alive," said King County Sheriff John Urquhart. "It sounds like they got to him in time."

Boysen was treated by medics on the scene and then was taken to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland by LifeFlight. Eventually, he will be lodged in the Lincoln County Jail.

A hospital spokeswoman described his initial condition as critical. By Wednesday morning, Boysen had been upgraded to serious condition.

Earlier in the day, police blew off the front door of his room to show Boysen the way they wanted him to exit. Police say no shots were fired and no law enforcement officers were injured.

Police believe Boysen killed his Washington grandparents last weekend and was the subject of a multi-state manhunt since Saturday, when his grandparents were found dead in their Fairwood, Wash. home. Officials with the King County Sheriff's Office said Boysen killed the couple the day after they threw a welcome-home party for him after his release from prison.

During the standoff, three loud bangs were heard in the afternoon. Police said they used three blasts from a water cannon to break a window at the motel because "the guy had been quiet for too long," said Lincoln City Police Chief Keith Kilian.

"There was a lack of activity going in there, so we did a strategic breach, which caused conversations to be continued," Kilian said. "We weren't progressing, so we stepped it up a little bit."

Police had sent a small robot up some stairs and onto a balcony of the motel before the blasts. A voice on a loudspeaker said, "There's a lot of people who want to see you come out OK."

The motel was evacuated and locked down Tuesday morning, police said. Lincoln City police officers and a state police SWAT team surrounded the motel and closed nearby streets.

"He’s not wanting to come out. He checked in using his correct name, and his driver’s license, so we suspect it’s one and the same," said Kilian.

A night clerk at the hotel told police they recognized Boysen from a news report as a man who checked into the motel.

"The desk clerk was watching Good Morning America, or some other morning program, and she saw information on a guy that was outstanding," said Kilian. "She checked the hotel registration and thought, ‘My God, he checked in last night.'"

Video by Lincoln Graves, KATU News

Boysen was released from a Washington state prison Friday after serving time for robbery, and his grandparents picked him up, authorities said. He is suspected of killing the 82-year-old man and 80-year-old woman Friday night or early Saturday at their home in the Fairwood area of Renton, police said.

Friends and family members identified the elderly couple as Robert R. and Norma J. Taylor. Authorities said they were not shot, but have not said how they died.

Boysen made threats against members of his family and law enforcement while behind bars, Corrections Department spokesman Chad Lewis said Tuesday. But authorities didn't learn of the threats until after the bodies of the grandparents were found and authorities had started looking for Boysen.

"Sources went to our staff at the Monroe Correctional Center and told us he had been threatening to do all this," Lewis said.

The information was passed on to King County deputies, and that's why King County Sheriff John Urquhart called Boysen extremely dangerous at a Monday news conference.

Boysen just finished serving nine months in prison on a burglary conviction, Lewis said. He 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 family members are under police protection.

Neighbors were contacted and asked to remain in their homes until the situation is resolved.

"(It's) mostly just SWAT going back and forth, snipers up on the hill and the robot going up the stairs," said Becky Kari, who works at the motel and lives nearby. "Then when they fired, I guess if it was a battering ram or if they fired gas into the room, I'm not really sure, but there were a couple of loud bangs."

Anne Chapette, who manages the nearby Overlook Motel, described the scene as full of police. "There were guys in camos with guns pointed," Chapette said.

The Red Cross helped those affected by the standoff. Spokeswoman Julie Miller said the incident affected people in 10-12 motel rooms and six neighboring homes. The Red Cross opened a shelter at the Oregon Coast Community College, and provided food for police at the scene.

KATU News reporters Lincoln Graves and Patrick Preston contributed to this story.