SW Bend burglary suspect stabbed during confrontation

(updated to indicate investigation continues, no arrest or charges have been filed)

A burglar who entered a southwest Bend home night thought it was unoccupied, but one of the two occupants stabbed him during a confrontation, police said.

Police responded shortly after 11 p.m. Feb. 3 to a home in the 20000 block of Doanna Way, off Brookswood Boulevard, on a report of a burglary in progress, said Lt. Clint Burleigh. As officers headed to the scene, Deschutes County dispatchers were told someone had been stabbed during the burglary, he said.

Officers and detectives conducted an investigation that determined Blaise Winchell Butcher, 31, of Bend, had entered the home illegally, looking to steal items and believing it was unoccupied, Burleigh said. However,a Bend man and woman were in the home at the time, Burleigh said.

One of the two confronted Butcher and there was a confrontation, during which the suspect was stabbed with a knife. Burleigh said Butcher was taken to St. Charles Bend with non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigators determined Butcher did not know the two people who were in the home but did know the homeowner, who was not home at the time, the lieutenant said.

Police executed a search warrant at the home early Saturday morning but released no more information as the investigation continued. Police indicated on Thursday, Feb. 16 the investigation was still continuing and that no arrests had been made or charges filed in the matter.

Lt. Ken Mannix said the day after the incident, “We try to recreate the scene and what led up to this, why did this happen? Because obviously, there’s a lot of people that have questions, and we want to find answers for.”

Last spring, Butcher was arrested on a second-degree criminal mischief charge, accused of damaging a woman’s car window with a large push broom as she attempted to drive by him as he stood in the middle of Northeast Eighth Street early on Feb. 27, police reports indicated.

Online records indicate he failed to show up at a trial readiness hearing last Tuesday for a trial scheduled for next Thursday, prompting the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.

The online court records also indicate Butcher previously was arrested in Washington County in August 2015 on a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon, as well as fourth-degree assault and menacing charges. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 1 of that year to the menacing charge and was sentenced to up to a year in jail.

Before that, Butcher was arrested in Deschutes County in August 2013 on charges of aggravated harassment and second-degree disorderly conduct.

Earlier arrests include a 2011 Benton County charge of DUII and two counts of recklessly endangering another person, as well as a January 2010 arrest by Oregon State Police on a DUII charge on Highway 20 in Bend and a 2004 arrest on a felony charge of assaulting a public safety officer, along with several misdemeanor charges, including two counts of resisting arrest.