Bend Police release details of stabbing, abduction and manhunt as witnesses relate frightening encounter

(Update: Adding video, comments from witnesses and Bend PD)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Police released more details Thursday about a Bend man who abducted his mother-in-law, then stabbed her and his estranged wife before fleeing Wednesday evening. That prompted a “shelter in place” alert to thousands of Eastside residents and an intensive manhunt that found the man, dead of an apparently self-inflicted wound.

Officers responded around 7:25 p.m. Wednesday to a reported stabbing in the 3000 block of NW Kenwood Court, Bend Police Communications Manager Sheila Miller said.

The caller told Deschutes County 911 dispatchers that her father had just stabbed her mother and grandmother, then left the area with the 83-year-old grandmother, reportedly driving her black Lincoln Navigator, Miller said.

An investigation determined John Leonard Davis, 61, had taken his mother-in-law against her will in the 21000 block of Dale Road, then drove to his estranged wife’s home on Kenwood Court.

Miller said Davis then assaulted and stabbed his 52-year-old wife, as well as his mother-in-law, before fleeing the home in her SUV.

Around 7:35 p.m., an off-duty Redmond Police lieutenant located the SUV at Big Sky Park, where Davis left his mother-in-law and drove away, Miller said.

Minutes later, officers found the Navigator parked in the Buckingham Elementary parking lot, where witnesses reported seeing the man running east through the nearby baseball fields.

Due to the severity of the crimes and the fact Davis was armed and dangerous, the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team responded to search the area, and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team also responded to assist.

Several K-9 teams from both agencies tracked Davis toward the area of Montara Drive, north of Big Sky Park. Around 9:35 p.m., CERT members found the man dead north of Big Sky Park.

“His death was apparently self-inflicted,” Miller said in a news release, declining to release details on the way Davis ended his life.

The two women were taken to St. Charles Bend with non-life-threatening injuries, she added.

The search east of Bend included areas east of Hamby Road, south of Butler Market Road, west of Erickson Road and north of Neff Road, including areas around Big Sky Park and Buckingham Elementary School, sheriff’s Captain Bill Bailey said in a news release.

The first Deschutes Alert was sent just after 8 p.m. to an area north of Highway 20 and centered around Big Sky Park and said, “Local law enforcement is in the area looking for a male suspect.”

Bailey described the suspect as a white male adult, 6-foot-3 inches tall and about 200 pounds. He last was seen wearing a dark-colored shirt and blue or gray pants with. The two alerts said he had “white paint on his face and body.”

“He is suspected of attempted murder, first-degree assault and kidnapping and should be armed and dangerous,” the release stated.

“There is a heavy law enforcement presence in the area east of Hamby Road searching for the suspect,” Bailey said. “If you live in the search area, please remain inside with your doors and windows locked. Report anything suspicious to Deschutes County 911.”

Bailey said in an update that the suspect was found dead in the search area around 9:35 p.m. by members of the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team. He said residents in the area no longer needed to shelter in place.

A St. Charles spokeswoman confirmed the hospital was placed in lockout status for just over an hour, and it was lifted before 9:30 p.m.

Kacy McCarney told NewsChannel 21 she was at Buckingham Elementary, getting ready to leave as her daughter's softball practice ended, when she saw the the man walking toward a portable toilet.

She said he had a child's backpack and "looked like he drank paint."

A boy was standing by the porta-potty he was heading toward, and McCarney said she called the child over. The man then went inside the porta-potty for only about "30 seconds" before he came out and started walking through the baseball field, while the kids were going to the cars to leave.

"I followed him up the field to let the coaches know it looked like he was guzzling a bottle of pills," she said. "Just minutes after he jumped the fence, the cops were on the scene (with) guns drawn and said, 'This guy is super-dangerous, you need to leave.'"

Another woman, Trista Deane, told us the man pulled a "wrecked" car next to theirs and there was blood on it. She said he used the port-a-potty and ditched a backpack and pills on the ground, then walked toward two dads who saw white paint all over his shirt, but he told them he spilled a milkshake on himself and got in a wreck. Police were going up and down Hamby Road at the time.

One of the dads who's an off-duty police officer called dispatch and learned of the search, then followed him until he jumped a fence. Numerous officers quickly moved into the parking lot and the field with rifles and K-9s, "yelling at our team to leave." She said police told the dads it was a good thing they didn't confront him, as he was carrying a large knife.